Anything but Ordinary
by Replica Velocity a.k.a. X5 714
Summary: Side along to the Dark Angel Series. Everybody deserves the chance to live a normal life, to be a person... to exist. The basic rights most take for granted.In Miami, in a future not far from now, in a broken world the struggle to be human has just began.
1. Beginnings

This is a side along story to the Dark Angel Series.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel, it belongs to James Cameron's and the evil people who canceled it FOX. (No offence, my usual rant) The Vercetti Gang thing belongs to the Grand Theft Auto 3 game as does Michael and Anya was created by author Mage-Alia. All other characters belong to me expect for those shown in the show, and the plot/ storyline is mine.

Chapter One-Beginnings

_People say that your experiences shape the way you turn out. In all honesty I should be in a psychologist's office, well after making sure they were too drugged up to remember who I was or what I said. _

_Or like my big brother Ben, who kills because Manticore drove him to insanity long ago. Sometimes my memories of the first eight and a half years of my life are a blur, like a documentary. When I remember, I feel detached as if it were just a bad dream. Whenever I seize I know that it was not. And it should not be Eva and Jack died and any other explanation for it would strip away its meaning._

_Max had a seizure; a bad one and the guards saw it. We knew from Jack that if they took Max away we would lose her. So Eva, bold brave Eva stood up to save our sister. And she fell, she died. Killed by the one man we all trusted and looked up to , Colonel Donald Lydecker- he used to be God there in Manticore._

_So we escaped from Manticore, the cold place that had been our lives. Outside, what was out there? But we had no choice. Max's life was at stake and then whoever had them next. _

_When I turned ten my own seizures had started, and proved worse than anything I had ever endured. But that was later. Jace stayed behind, too scared, too afraid to leave. I never found out what happened to her and in a selfish wish, I hope I never do._

_To escape to the fence I was partnered with Brin. Beyond being my sister she was also my best friend, gave me the courage to leave Manticore._

_We had planned to disobey Zack and stay together- our big brother meant well but the idea of being all alone out in an alien world terrified me more than the Nomlies in the basement eating me up piece by piece. But when we had almost reached the fence we ran into Kavi and Mina. Mina had been shot in the leg and couldn't go on, and Kavi was too little to get out on his own, a full two years younger than me- he was the baby of the unit._

_So I had to go on alone._

Rae woke slowly, shaking off the edge of a nightmare. She sat up and looked at the barest hint of light in the sky as she glanced a second later at the time.

Four in the morning and time to get up already, Rae thought and swung her long ganglylegs out of the sheets. A slight tremor went through her body and Rae grabbed a small container of pills already half-empty. She took out four and swallowed them quickly. Rae pulled on a blue short sleeved shirt, and black fitted trousers. A pair of very small-heeled boots went on.

Rae walked into the main room of the apartment and knocked on a closet door. Both Rae and her roommates Scott and Piper had rooms barely bigger than closets and just as comfortable as closets too.

A mumble sounded indicating that Scott Winters had indeed woken up and was now sounding as tired as her. There were so many days Rae wished she had Shark DNA like Max and Jondy rather than the seizures that make other transgenics rough patches look like a walk in the spring. Speaking of which, a very awake Piper Cameron was sitting on the bench, all ready and eating the last piece of toast. Without mould that is.

"Good morning Dr Larter" Piper said with that annoying air of a morning person." And how are we feeling today?" Rae responded by just looking at her with a neutral expression and her light green eyes(which Scott had dubbed the no blinking stare) and then turning when Piper blinked, taking the carton of milk off the bench. Her light brown hair was tied back simply, while Piper's dark waved hair, glossy, stood out next to her pale skin. Scott walked out of his room and scratched his head, dressed but still not awake.

"Has anyone seen my shoes, the brown ones?" Scott asked blearily. Rae dipped a slice of cold pizza into a glass of milk making Piper flinch as she ate it. He looked in the fridge and paused. "Why are my shoes there?" Piper grinned at him and Scott looked in his shoes seeing carrot and celery sticks.

He dumped the food out of them.

"There is a lack of appreciation for decoration," said Piper smirking at him and pushing herself off the bench." Sides that was for making me watch the Rage of Kib last night".

Scott answered with gritted teeth. "The Wrath of Kahn". Piper looked bored and ate one of the celery sticks grinning. Scott was, very politely speaking of course a geek.

Piper turned to Rae.

"Paper, scissors, rock". Rae threw her hands up when Piper grinned at her rock to Rae's scissors. One thing she could not do was predicting the future. It was how they settled who was having Scott as a passenger on their motorcycles. Any attempts to try to get him to ride on his own were disastrous. So the lucky winner every morning would get to ride their bike solo. Rae had won the last three days.

"Too bad, too sad" said Piper smirking. Rae rolled her eyes.

Rae rode her motorcycle just behind Piper's with Scott clutching onto her for dear life. Her motorcycle was a silver, sleek thing more designed for being a speed freak than a travel to work. But then Rae also used it out of work and it was more maneuverable than a car and went more places.

_Piper and Scott are great friends. Scott's older than us-28, we both entered the Miami teenage training medical program. You see after the pulse there was not all that many people to become doctors. And no way to track and make sure those with potential did it. So the hospital takes in teenagers and trains them so it has new doctors and in returns gets them off the streets, giving them a future._

_I have been in Miami since 2013. Six years here and five of them spent at this hospital. But I have never found the heart to leave Miami despite the increasing chance if Manticore and Lydecker catch up with me. I have never told my friends about my past- I don't want Lydecker to hurt them if I ever do have to bail so the less they know the safer they are._

_It's laughable sometimes; a transgenic supersoilder designed to be a weapon, a killer as a doctor. It started off as a way to get a silent one up on Lydecker. But now… I could never see myself as anything else._

Rae sped up and overtook Piper giving her a slight salute, making Scott clutch harder.

"You brat!" yelled Piper, in mock rage. Rae grinned and zoomed down an alleyway. She then braked hard until she came to a stop just outside the hospital staff parking and eased her bike slowly in.

"You… are going to kill me one of these days," Scott said, stumbling as he got off the bike. Piper parked her bike next to Rae's and pulled her helmet off as Rae took hers off. Rae hated wearing a helmet but she was not stupid enough to ride without one- it was like flaunting your barcode in Lydecker's face. And Rae was not arrogant enough to do that.

"The day you learn how to ride one of these" said Piper, "Is the day you realize how great it is". Scott glared at her.

Rae just shook her head and walked towards the door, unzipping the leather jacket she wore over her top. Piper and Scott followed still bickering.

In the locker room, there was a doctor from the night shift snoring on the bench. Rae ignored it as she clipped her ID onto her lab coat and put it on. Piper threw her leather coat onto the sleeping doctor, making him fall onto the ground.

"And you wonder" muttered Scott as he pulled through his small locker. "Why you are the current most annoying person at this hospital".

Piper just grinned and shrugged.

"What can I say, it's a gift baby". Rae slipped out of the room into the general hub of the hospital. All the noise and constant pace that was the everyday for the hospital. If hospitals had been bad pre pulse, they were even worse after it.

Funding for new equipment, wards and other essentials were now dependent on getting companies and the rich to sustain it. Unlike pre pulse though, it was clear that those companies had a stake in hospitals good and proper.

"Hey" said Rae greeting the doctor in charge of the shift, Dr William Larson. Pessimistic, glass half empty Larson had very little faith in the human race at large, and let everyone know it.

"And here I was thinking Larter you had wised up and realized that you are wasting your life here" Larson shook his head and looked over his shoulder. " Hey idiot get here". A man a few years older than Rae came up to her. He had dark blond hair and brown eyes and was very well built; his face set in a bored look until he saw Rae. His eyes narrowed and he looked intrigued. Rae looked at him hard; who was this guy he looked famillar.

"Larter, this is very dull intern is doctor in training Jaye Krieghen" Larson turned to the intern. "And Dr Larter here Krieghen, will be your god the next few weeks so follow what she says very carefully and I will not chase you around with a chainsaw for driving me crazy".

Krieghen looked annoyed which seemed to cheer Larson up as he strode of towards Piper and Scott. Piper had a sad face on and waved as if saying good bye.

Baby sitting an intern was perhaps one of the worst tasks you could be assigned. Her look vanished when Larson started to talk and Rae turned back to Krieghen assured with the knowledge her friend would be doing something equally as bad.

"Do I know you?" Rae asked in curiosity. Krieghen looked away.

"No". Rae looked at him intently and her eyes widened in shock. On his neck was a barcode. The last three digits were six-zero-zero. Manticore, and a twin of Zack to add to the list of very bad. No, no, oh blue lady please not here!

"You should cover your barcode better" Rae spat, hiding her growing panic. Krieghen turned to her and Rae was surprised to see a look of fear on his face. Since when was a Manticore transgenic afraid of a 0'Niner, usually it was the opposite- hatred.

"I am not going back," Krieghen said in a stubborn tone as the fear vanished and a look of resolution filled his face. "Tell Lydecker that I said to go to hell". Rae gave him an incredulous look and pushed him into an empty room.

She decided to play along to get some answers- it still could be a trap.

"I am taking you back on his orders, and I will complete my mission". Krieghen glared at her.

"You may not have free will but I do and the death of two of my unit, my family actually means something to me and- wait a second" he said confused. "Since when do soldiers speak like that". Rae gave a shrug. Realization felled Krieghen's face." You are not Manticore". Rae looked upwards.

"Ten points to you".

Krieghen folded his arms. "You are one of the rogue X5's from 2009 aren't you?"

"Who are you?" Rae asked demandingly.

They were walking down a hospital corridor, Rae looking through a patient's chart. " I have never met a transgenic other than from my family to leave Manticore". Krieghen looked down.

"Well Lydecker killing two of your sisters kinda opens your eyes".

"What happened?"

"We were on a mission. My unit completed it successfully- but my sisters were critically injured and needed immediate evac. Lydecker was angry at us for failing to do it undetected. So he deliberately waited, and… it… cost their lives. So I left and I have been on the run for two months".

Rae looked at him." And you have not gotten caught, which is surprising. You don't hide your barcode well". She rolled up his collar to cover it. "And you probably take stupid risks".

"And the twelve of you have not". Rae turned to him, her eyes wide.

"Twelve, twelve of us made it?" Rae had never known the specifics, if she was the only one. The knowledge that the others were out here, in the world with her was better than she had ever hoped. Krieghen shook his head.

"Two have been recaptured so far".

"Who".

"X5 581 in 2015 and 789 in 2017". Rae flinched. 581, 789- Kavi and Vada. The knowledge hurt but that Kavi made it out-.

"Did Brin, 734 make it out". Krieghen nodded and Rae gave a slight smile but inside she was ecstatic. She had often wondered about Brin, had wondered what she was doing. Rae had always seen Brin as having made it- having a life as a gymnast or dancer. Brin had always been a talented acrobat even by X5 standards.

"Okay" Rae spoke now all business. "Why- why did that make you leave Manticore?" she asked stopping her steps just outside a ward door.

"I could not do it any more". His eyes were closed now as if in pain. The decision for Rae had been painful all those years ago, and for him it must be so close to the surface.

_Max fell to the ground shaking and the unit surrounded her. A trainer approached to take Max with a baton stick and Zack attacked him. One of the guards tried to help him and Eva hit now, and grabbed his gun and fired it once into the air and the guards and trainers fled the room._

_Eva took the lead. They started to walk helping Max, except for Jace. Rae stayed close to Brin._

_Zack, Jondy and Tinga supported Max as they left the room. Max caught sight of Jace who shook her head and stayed still backing away. The other_s_ left the hallway and entered a double reflected hallway. As they were almost at the door Colonel Lydecker entered holding a gun followed by similarly armed military personnel. Rae gripped Brin's arm in pure fright as Eva brought up the gun._

_Lydecker fired the gun and Eva fell to the ground. Rae stared in horror at the dead body of her older sister._

_Sirens blared as Rae and her brothers and sisters jumped through the window out into a cold icy night._

Rae changed the subject quickly.

"You do have medical experience, don't you" He nodded at her. "What do I call you, Krieghen or Jaye?"

"Jaye is fine." Rae grinned and opened the ward door.

"Take point" Rae said, nodding to the patient closest to them, sitting on the bed. The patient a man who looked like he was in his late forties, and he was coughing rather badly. She handed Jaye the chart. Rae didn't know how she knew, but she just knew that he was genuine. And the chance to help someone who was in the position she had found herself in when she had just escaped Manticore. That was one chance she just had to take.

"Mr. Robastzin, I am Dr Krieghen" Jaye said smiling in a friendly, concerned way as he stood near the patient's bed." We took some chest X rays and you have some fluid in your lungs that seems to be the result of your flu". That friendliness had not been learnt out of Manticore, definitely not- but it seemed he was too overcompensating.

The man blinked hard. "That sounds serious". Rae stepped forward.

"It can be, but we caught it early before pneumonia could develop. So everything is going to be fine. Now Dr. Krieghen will explain what your treatment will be"

Rae stepped away and allowed Jaye take back over. The problem was that the he was fresh out of Manticore, two months did not count. Common verbal and lessons how to infiltrate normal life did not make a person. It took more than that to change, but you never forgot. Rae would not, could not forget the things that happened to her, the things Manticore made her do.

The ambulance traveled through some of the less desirable aspects of downtown Miami and people stayed inside.

Piper glared as she sat on the portable gurney in the ambulance. There were never enough medics for the vehicles so some poor doctor was often forced into this duty. She almost wished she had Rae's intern. Almost, Piper was not that desperate.

Abruptly the ambulance stopped without warning and Piper fell off the gurney and hit her head. "Hey" she yelled. "What's with the bad driving?" The driver did not respond and the ambulance doors flew open. A man with heavily tattooed arms stood there.

"Doctor, we need your expertise and discretion". Piper looked around as she got out. Gang territories, well the sooner she helped with whatever, they would let her go back to work. That was how gangs operated, they would use a doctor, but they would never kill one. Kind of a neutral territory there thanks the world.

"Sir, shouldn't we be in Seattle tracking down X5 452?" Colonel Donald Lydecker turned around and regarded Agent Sandoval.

"The last thing I should think Elizabeth Renfro wants is for more transgenics under her command to go rogue". There was no accusation in his voice, just a fact. But Sandoval looked down for a moment anyway. He was often in the line of fire between Lydecker and Renfro and it was never good.

"There is no proof that X5 600 is in Miami sir, apart from the sighting near the area that could have been 599." Sandoval tried to keep his tone even. Lydecker turned to him.

"I have read some… interesting reports from the last few years in this area. A teenaged girl fighting off gang members several times her size two years ago. They saw a barcode on the back of her neck.

This same girl has been seen around according to the local authorities although they have never seen her face. Also successful computer hacking attempts into highly sensitive information regarding Manticore traced to here". Lydecker paused. "It would make sense for 600 to attempt to seek help from someone who has succeeded".

Sandoval sighed. "Even if that's true sir, how do we get them without alerting either one? If one or both of them is in this city, they will be alerted to our presence and escape."

Lydecker stood and looked out the window into Miami's skyline. "We wait. Sooner or later they will slip up" Lydecker looked at Sandoval with cold, blue eyes. "And the we will have them"

Piper followed the gang man into a building that looked a notch above the other 'real estate' here.

A woman in her twenties, with blond hair and coldness about her stood in front of them a few metres away. She was quite obviously pregnant. A man strode in from behind her and Piper recognized him in shock. Michael Vercetti, the man responsible for the largest gang in Miami- even the police abstained from getting bribes from him. Michael Vercetti was more dangerous than most psychopaths were, for one he was quite sane.

"So" said Piper with a bright smile. "What is the medical situation you want me for". The woman if possible felt even colder, and Piper felt her smile wilt.

Michael gave her the barest of smiles.

"I just want you to perform a medical check up on Anya". Woah, now that name rang a bell too. Anya Vercetti married to Michael and was well known not only for her skill as a killer but also her absolute revulsion of being touched by most people.

And touching was required here. Damn it!

"What happed next?" asked Scott smiling. They were in the local lounge/bar that most of the staff went to after work. It was better than most and they were sitting around a table. Rae was trying not to laugh at Piper's day sitting opposite and the intern Jaye was sitting next to her.

Piper just shook her head at Rae. "Well, then I spent the next ten minutes trying to do what I was asked to with minimal touching and Anya Vercetti looking like she was going to kill me. I swear when Vercetti said I could go it was all I could do to keep from running out of there".

Rae cracked up and hid her face with her hands. Rae was not drunk; no alcohol for some reason did work on her. And the stuff tasted vile, so she didn't drink it.

Jaye stared at her weirdly; it was strange for him to see normal people laughing- in Manticore there was not too many smiles and even less laughter.

Scott looked equally as amused as Rae.

"Now it could have been worse". Rae stopped laughing and looked at him. Piper was now scowling at Jaye for daring to say that and then at Rae for bringing him.

"How?" asked Scott, with a not so innocent look to his face.

"The woman could have been in labor". Piper stopped scowling. And Scott just winced and looked away. Now that would be scary on so many levels.

"Now I am so not letting Larson make me do that duty until after that woman's given birth" said Piper, a thankful voice that it had not been the case. "Imagine, if Kinsey got that duty". Scott just shook his head.

"I don't know how he got to be a doctor".

"The pulse" Rae answered, taking a sip of her water. "His dad is some senator in Washington or something" she stood. "I have to go do something, so I'll see you at home later guys. Jaye I'll see you tomorrow". Jaye smiled and nodded at her. He seemed to be having a good time. That was the best way not to brood in your thoughts. Insulate yourself with people.

Rae sped through the Miami streets on her motorcycle. The hair that stuck out from under her helmet was flying behind her. That was the other reason Rae wore the helmet- your hair got wrecked really quickly flying helmet less.

_No matter how fast I ride, however hard I try to run from my past it always seems to be over my shoulder stalking me. It is a past I didn't ask for, one I don't want._

_If I could wake up and be just another doctor like Scott and Piper, it would be my greatest dream some true. But that's never going to happen. So I go faster, staying a step ahead of the past I wish I could forget._

Rae stopped the motor cycle behind a building and slipped inside. When she came out gone were her normal clothes, instead her outfit was that of a cat burglar's. But that was not what she was after, Rae was after the one resource that she needed-information on the others. She hopped back on the motorcycle and rode just around the block from a FBI office building.

Rae had realized early on that using a private investigate would be cumbersome, time consuming and expensive. So she did the footwork to speak herself. Rae hid her motorcycle in a bush and walked the rest of the way; she had scoped the place out earlier.

Rae glanced at her watch and counted down. Nine at night, there was now a half an hour one this night once a month when all the cameras were off and sure enough the red light from the cameras closest to her blinked out.

Rae ran along the side of the building and leaped up to an open second story window, her hands catching the windowsill. She easily pulled herself up and in and looked down the corridor, empty. The schematics for this building told her; the room she desired to be in was up a floor.

She slipped quietly to a stairwell and got out a card from a breast pocket. The card was a decryptor identification card and allowed you to get into most places. The green light shone and the door opened. With what the card had cost her it better work well. Rae went in and closed the door behind her, feeling only the shape of the metal handle not its coldness through her glove.

Rae got out at the floor and looked around a corner where a guard stood; he showed no sign of tiredness. She coughed. The guard ran to where she was and just as he rounded the corner Rae hit across the face just before he could see her. The guard would be out for a few hours. After she opened the door, Rae dragged the guard in there with her out of sight.

Sitting down at the desk in the room, Rae turned to computer on and slipped in a disk. It whirred and Rae hacked into the computer's mainframe. The disk helped slow down the security protocols, hacking by no length could be considered her specialty. She could do it, yes but not exceptionally. Enhanced DNA only went so far. Now to find the door into the arrest records and the reports of Lydecker's stormtroopers activities.

Sandoval entered Lydecker's office. "Sir, we have detected a hacking attempt into some of the FBI's classified files about Manticore in their facility here. The computer is also searching for the arrest records of a specific group of unspecified females and males young adults with identifying marks on the back of their necks. What should we do". Lydecker stood.

"Don't hamper the efforts" Lydecker grabbed a radio and strode out of the office." Team on standby prepare for immediate deployment".

Rae inserted a flash drive and began to download the information the hacking program was recovering for her._**Estimated Time: 2 minutes.**_

She glanced at the icons at the screen and a small icon was flashing. Rae frowned and clicked on it. A history clicked on and highlighted was a hit registered from another computer in the same city not that far away.

"This is not good" muttered Rae and she entered a key command for more information and the computer blocked her. She frowned deeply, there was still more than a minute left for the download. She heard the sound of approaching vehicles and she looked out of the window. To Rae's horror, TAC teams were pouring out and Lydecker himself stepped out of one of the hummers. The first time Rae had seen him in over ten years.

For a second, her fear paralyzed her. Then Rae breathed in hard and ran to the computer and ripped the flash drive out and opened the disk draw, removing the disk. Then she pushed the computer of the table and made it crash to the ground, sparking as it broke.

Rae ran out of the room and heard the footsteps on the stairwell and she swore mentally and looked out a window. The next building was very close and Rae pulled the window open. It was broken at the edge and a shard of glass cut her through the glove.

Rae winced and stood on the ledge and leaped across. The building was shorter and she landed on the edge of its roof. She ran to the other side and went down the emergency fire outside stair rail. Rae heard the sound of the TAC team at the window she had jumped from and ran faster and spared a glance backwards.

Her pupils widened and she saw Lydecker staring at the building and then he turned and looked in her direction, even though he couldn't see her face he whipped out his radio. She ran off, and reached her motorcycle. Rae leaped on and sped off.

The Miami skyline glowed with the sign of the approaching dawn. Lydecker stared at it, not really seeing it. He had come so close to one of them, had seen a figure blur away. A technician entered the room.

"What do you have for me?" Lydecker asked, not turning.

"We found a trace amount of blood on the window we believed the subject escaped from. The DNA is a match for X5 478". Lydecker didn't move.

"Thank you" said Lydecker, dismissing him. The technician left the room and Lydecker looked at the closed door. 478, or Rae the name the others had given her. The first trace of her since the escape and here all along. And like Max, her days away from Manticore were numbered.

Rae lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She had come in just after midnight; quiet ensuring her friends would stay asleep. But she could not sleep. Rae was tired, but she just couldn't sleep. Her mind was racing. Decisions, choices, possibilities ran through her head.

_I always knew this day would come that Lydecker would come to the city I call home. I just wished it would never happen. If the trail goes cold Lydecker should, and will leave. But I know better that._

_I should be away from Miami already putting, Lydecker behind me. But I can't, this is my home. _

_I am not going to run, let Lydecker take my life away. This choice is strategically unsound, sentimental and foolish._

_But it is human._

T.B.C

Okay for D.A fans this chapter was set just after Cold Comfort. I am running on the thing that Lydecker waited to go after Max for a week to follow this up and goes to Seattle to then try his plan with Max's face to catch her in Blah, blah, woof, woof. Next chapter will take place just after this when Lydecker vanishes from the D.A storyline for a few eps. You know in Out, Red, Art Attack and Rising. The four episodes without Deck in them.

So please review.

-Allison. Chapter completed on 20/8/2006 or for Americans 8/20/2006.


	2. In her Name

Disclaimer: For this fic's full disclaimer read chapter one. I don't own DA. La de da… Spoilers for even though' we are not at that point what Logan said in Loco Pollo- 2 bodies in Chicago, 4 in Miami and 3 in New York for those who don't remember. There are also spoilers for the flashbacks in the Berrisford Agenda. This chapter takes place just after Blah, Blah. Woof, Woof. I have decided while I am sticking true to the first season, Season two is going to be different in certain ways and the story for the Dark Angel second season will be posted when the timelines mesh. And no, Alec will not be in love with anyone right now, original character or Max. He is trying to put Rachel behind him (Berrisford).

Chapter Two-In her Name 

"Oh, please god no". At the age of thirty- three, Graham Long was too young to die. He remembered all the things he still had to do in life as he ran through the underbrush wincing as small branches scratched into his skin.

His entire life he had done the Lord's work and his centre for homeless teens saved many lives each year. And he still needed to keep it going, to help people, to make the difference.

The young man that had abducted him jumped from Graham's side and grabbed his arm, breaking it. The man then ripped the pendant of his neck and Graham caught sight of his eyes and froze in fear. At that moment he knew he was going to-

A crack sounded as Graham fell to the ground dead, and the young man stood over him.

The young man walked down the main aisle of the church, his hazel eyes serious in concentration. His short blond hair didn't cover the back of his neck where the jacket did not.

A barcode was at the base of his neck. He walked to the altar where there was a statue of the Virgin Mary and looked around. Then the young man kneeled and placed a handkerchief he had been holding on the altar. There were splotches of red on it, blood. He looked up and smiled.

---

Rae tapped her fingers on the counter and smiled as an old harried waitress who was stepping out, glared at her. She pulled the fingers away just as a slight tremor went through them.

"Hi". The waitress gave her a death stare.

"Here's your order". Rae took the tray and turned around, walking to the table where Jaye had been waiting for her. It was a lunch break and Rae had been spending them for the most part trying to get to know Jaye. It was hard considering Jaye really clamped up. He had been 2IC of his unit and there had been only one other 'twin' from Rae's unit in his.

Apparently all clones had been in reindoctrination for a mandatory six months after the escape. Rae had tried to apologize but Jaye had refused it. For one, she like most transgenics did not have a twin to speak of. And secondly Jaye believed that by escaping Rae and her family had done the right thing.

And even before the event that caused him to defect, Jaye had been jealous of her unit, that they had made it. Jaye though, was one of the few unfortunately.

"If Lydecker knows you are here at least why haven't we seen a trace of him all week" Jaye asked keeping his voice low. Rae hesitated and then spoke.

"Lydecker was after Max in Seattle, I heard it from a former Manticore tech in Seattle and only scattered details. But Zack saved her by giving himself up. I guess he is too busy celebrating".

Rae's tone took on a dark edge. The fact that Lydecker had Zack was not helping her sleep any better wondering what Deck was doing to her big brother.

"But your brother does not know where you are so isn't that a bad thing- damn it I am sorry". Rae put a hand to her temple and it was shaking slightly. Zack had not been in contact with her and until the previous day Rae had not known how her brother was doing.

"Don't worry, we do have to keep a look out for Lydecker and anything that can get us caught". Rae picked up her glass, plain milk and drank. It was warm but that didn't matter, it was what was in it that helped because milk contained tryptophan naturally. Playing the one in charge was a new experience for her, and not just because it was hard. If she screwed up, Lydecker would get both of them. And Rae was not in the best state at the moment.

Jaye had, understandably been all for leaving Miami. But leaving now would leave a trail, a trail easy enough for Deck to track them down. And Jaye was just getting to know this city- him leaving now would earn him a one way ticket back to Manticore. Jaye barely knew how to keep under the radar now. And Rae did not want to leave unless she had to.

"So all hands on 'Deck'". Rae smiled her mood improving and kicked him under the table.

"Are you sure there's nothing between you two, 'cause I could swear". Rae looked at Piper who had come just behind Jaye. Piper's dark brown eyes were warm as she greeted her friend. Piper knew there was nothing going on but she enjoyed getting a reaction.

"No, we are secretly beginning our world domination". Piper rolled her eyes at Rae's even toned sarcasm. "How's Scott?" Scott's grandfather had died last week and the funeral had been today. Rae knew they had been close.

Piper shrugged. "You know him girl, Scott's all for talking emotions and stuff when it comes to the geekish world but real life- he sucks". Rae shook her head and sighed.

"I am picking him up from the church tonight. He didn't want to go to the wake and no one else could drive him so-" Rae stopped speaking as her cell chirped. "Excuse me". Rae opened her cell and stood outside. "Hello?"

"Rachel Larter, it's me Dr Craig Green. We met last month when you helped me with my Jane Doe". Rae had met Dr Green during a conference, he worked for a morgue in the other main Miami hospital and she had helped him.

"Yes, I remember".

"Well, I have just been on leave and since my morgue doesn't have anyone else at the moment I have not been checking the bodies till I came back. And you asked me to inform you first, of anything strange for your research paper"

Rae frowned. That was her cover to get information on anything from her angle. Any contributions in the medical world she made would just have to go unnoticed. "What have you got?"

"There are three bodies that were found within days of each other, the last one was found only this morning. Rachel- the teeth were pulled out precisely, an arm on each person was broken and each victim has a barcode on the back of his neck".

Rae disconnected the phone in shock and took off back towards the hospital. Inside the diner Jaye looked confused and Piper sat where Rae had been.

"Don't worry, she does that sometimes. Annoys Larson to no end but Rae comes back with an explanation. Besides she can tolerate him which is rare, though I myself only despises him an itty bit".

"Glad to here that Cameron". Piper shook her head and clunked her head hard on the table. Then she looked up with a resigned air.

"He is behind me, huh?" Larson just muttered under his breath about female doctors and went to the counter.

"I am surprised that he and that woman don't get along," said Jaye. Piper smiled in agreement, tried Rae's drink and put it back on the table.

"Not even any flavoring".

---

_Ben. I know that it's him. I have heard of this before in some small towns, and three months ago in Chicago. I actually got a picture from a friend in Chicago of the barcode. I don't know why he is doing this, re-acting that day._

_I have went to places he has been, hiding what I can from Lydecker. I know that if Deck thinks that Ben is unable to be saved, too far-gone, he will kill him._

Rae slipped on to her motorcycle and started it, accelerating down the alleyway.

_I can't let that happen, I need to find my big brother- and try to help him. To stop him before he goes too far. _

"Dr Larter, thanks for coming". Rae nodded and shook Green's hand.

"It's no problem, can I see the bodies?" Green led her to the morgue, the difference between this hospital and the one Rae worked at was that this morgue was not just for dead patients. This one was for all dead people found in Miami and it was large.

"The cause of death in each patient was a snapped neck between the first and second vertebrae. This could only have been done by someone with an amazing upper body strength as I indicated in the report I sent out". Rae's head snapped up.

"What?"

Green winced. "Yeah, I was then contacted by some agency who told me to keep the bodies off the record and that they would be here tomorrow to collect them. Some Donald… Lydecker I think. So we will keep you seeing the bodies between us- I don't want to get fired or worse". Rae nodded, with short felt relief. So Lydecker would definitely be in Miami tomorrow.

"Then why did you show me?"

'I just can't hand the bodies over without getting a second opinion, to try to keep them here so this crime can be solved rather than swept away".

"I'd drop this" Rae cautioned, her voice strong. "Those government… types can make people disappear. Pick fights you can win". Green seemed to be fighting something. Rae knew that he was into all that freedom of the press things. Had heard him on the phone talking to someone about something 'Eyes Only' would want to know about.

'Okay" Green said after a minute, in a defeated tone." But it's a sad day Rachel when justice is not only denied but actively prevented".

Rae gave a sad look. "I hear you. So what else was uniformed about the bodies".

"In each case, something appears to have been ripped off the victim's neck. All the other things are standard. Defensive wounds… I really hope this person gets stopped".

---

"Colonel Lydecker, the helicopter's ready for you". Lydecker walked side by side with Sandoval and nodded at the messenger. It was just on dusk, and the light was receding fast from Seattle. Lydecker was dealing with the situation in Miami, Rae and Ben in hand rather than returning to Manticore to interrogate Zack.

Zack had attempted to kill himself and the crew of the helicopter he was on and was still healing.

"You do realize that she won't be happy when you don't turn up for that meeting sir" said Sandoval nervously.

"Well you will be there in my place and if she complains tell her I at least am doing my job" said Lydecker with a trace of annoyance in his voice and Sandoval was already trying to figure out a way to reword it.

They walked outside the building and by the helicopter a young man stood next to the solider guard. He snapped to attention.

"X5 494 reporting for duty, sirs". 494 was the twin X5 of Ben and already had four successful solo missions under his list of accomplishment besides his unit's missions. Although there was the failure of his one and only deep cover op, he had been released by psy ops recently, reindoctrinated. 494 also was the only transgenic qualified for this mission. He was in an all black special ops uniform for the flight.

"At ease solider" Lydecker commanded, already dismissing Sandoval. "Do you know what your mission is?"

494 spoke instantly, without a trace of hesitation." To impersonate X5 493 sir and use his persona to locate and gain the trust of the rogue X5 478 in order to bring her in as well as determine whether she is in contact with X5 600 sir!"

"Let's move out". Lydecker climbed into the chopper and was shortly followed by 494. The helicopter took off fast and flew into the sky.

---

Scott just sat in the church watching his hands. When he had been nine, his parents had died when the world trade centers had been attacked in New York. How confused and upset he was then, was all coming back. Scott's grandfather had taken him in, the only relative to care what happened to him.

His Grandfather had been the one he went to talk to about things even after he moved out. Scott had talked with him about his career, Piper and Rae his best friends and what his latest favorite science fiction topic was.

Scott remembered the way his grandfather's eyes would sparkle when he heard about his friends, the people he saved, Star Trek, anything that meant something to Scott. Now it was over.

"Are you okay?" A young man sat next to him, with not so much concern but curiosity in those hazel eyes. Scott involuntarily shivered.

"Yes, I am going to wait outside for my friend now". Scott walked out, seeing Rae sitting on the step next to her motorcycle. The setting sun illuminated her features, which seemed saddened by something. For a second it was if she were a complete stranger, somebody else.

"Rae?"

She turned and Scott was relieved when the look to her face vanished.

"Hey are you-" Rae froze in place and Scott turned the man with the eerie eyes walked past them, glancing at her and then running off into the growing darkness. All that would have made that man creepier for Scott would have been his eyes glowing.

"Ben" Rae whispered as he vanished. She wanted to go after him, but she couldn't. Her responsibility right now was her friend, already in a fragile state today. One of her brothers that close, a sibling so close she could have touched him. And Rae doubted she could hold her own against Ben, at least right now.

"Do you know him?" asked Scott, an inquisitive look on his face. The look of longing that had been there for a second seemed to have shown the stranger again. The Rae he didn't know.

"No, he just reminded me of someone". Scott knew Rae was lying and she knew that he knew she was lying. Rae sighed and changed the subject. "Let's go". She wanted at that moment to explain it all to Scott. The genetically enhanced bit, Ben all of it. But Rae couldn't have a moment of weakness, considering who was after her.

And more importantly the people Rae didn't know about.

---

The shift had been a few hours longer than normal, Larson's way of getting extra work since Rae had not returned or been seen since lunch. Jaye walked out of the hospital, a small backpack slung over one shoulder.

Rae had left him a message on his cell, to tell Larson she wouldn't be back in that day- to make an excuse. Her own explanation to him had been sketchy for her. Rae was one of those people who paid attention to the details. Something about Ben, one of her brothers and a problem.

Jaye knew who Ben was. Rae had told him all the names of her brother and sisters just in case something went wrong. 493 had some wires loose and not in a good way. He was worried that her brother would affect Rae's normally good judgement.

"Hey Jaye!" Piper was running out, and caught up to him. Jaye stopped and looked at her. That was another thing he didn't get about Rae. Her friends were the biggest liability in her life, but she valued them so strongly as if she needed the connection to people.

Piper spoke before she thought, and was irritatingly cheerful at times. Scott was introverted when he was not around people he was close to and obsessive over both things that were just make believe as well as playing amateur Sherlock Holmes. Jaye just didn't get what qualities they had that would make Rae risk exposure. But despite their idiosyncrasies, there was something about being close to them that felt right to him.

"Piper, what's wrong?" Piper just shook her head, and linked her arms with him. Jaye stiffened but allowed her to do this. It was hard to get used to the contact with ordinary people; he had less contact with his own unit before all this.

He was trying hard not to think about them, about how his CO, X5 243 felt about his deflection, if she now loathed him, saw him as a traitor. If she never wanted to see him again, or the rest of his unit felt that way.

"It has occurred to me that you are new to our fair city and the fun to be had," Piper said, pulling her hair out. The dark curls fell against her face. "So tonight you are coming with me and I am going to show you some fun Miami style"

Jaye frowned and tilted his head. "Why?" Piper laughed.

"Cause judging by your expression it is clearly a foreign concept, so come on or I'll have to drag you". She tuned and headed to the staff parking, expecting him to follow. Jaye hesitated and followed a heartbeat later. Rae was telling him to act more human and this was the perfect opportunity.

---

Rae dropped Scott off at the base of their apartment building. "You going to be okay? Because, I could stay with you". There was a slight sound of reluctance in her voice and Scott was surprised. Apart from her refusal to discuss her life before she had came here, Rae was generally a good friend who was there when you needed her. It was not something connecting to that man at the church that was distracting her. It was something else altogether.

Maybe it was just his own desire to try to ignore the fact his grandfather was dead but, Scott felt as if Rae was hiding something big.

"No, you go, I'll be fine". Rae nodded and prepared to ride off but then glanced at him, she looked tired. There seemed to be invisible lines under her green eyes, although he had never seen Rae have lines. It was just her expression.

"If you need to talk, I am here". Scott gave a small smile and nodded. Rae rode off and Scott entered the building. A thought entered his mind and he slapped it away but the thought came back. What if he checked out Rae's room, there had to be answers in there. Rachel Larter was easy to live with but point blank never let anybody in her room. Scott felt bad for even thinking of it; it would be a violation of Rae's privacy and trust.

But the stupid voice in his head, the one that had always gotten him into trouble as a kid, suspecting innocent neighbours were terrorists, sprang up now asking why Rae kept her life before so secret.

That he had a right to know more about her.

Scott walked up the apartment stairs to the third floor and stepped out. He pulled his key out of pocket to open the door but it opened by itself and Piper stepped out followed by Jaye.

"Hey Scott, you 'kay. I'm taking Jaye down to one of the beach events, you want to come to take your mind off things?" Scott shook his head and smiled apologetically at Piper.

'No, but thanks anyway". Piper smiled and pulled Jaye out with her who looked like he was seriously regretted something. Scott was too distracted to try to help him.

Scott stood in the now empty apartment and heard Piper's voice grow softer and softer. He looked at Rae's door. Would he, or wouldn't he? That seemed to be the no win question.

---

Rae parked her bike just outside the small house that served as an unofficial clinic. As she slid off the bike, a seizure hit her body and Rae fell to her knees. When it had past, Rae walked into the house without knocking.

A dark haired Hispanic woman in her forties glared at her in a show of annoyance rather than really being annoyed. "Chica, when are you going to learn to knock on that front door?"

Rae gave a grin that was more of a grimace. "When my body stops screwing up".

The woman smiled and strode over and hugged her. "How longs it been". Rae shrugged as she pulled away.

"Four months since the last time". Generally three times a year, Rae's body would hit a rough patch with her seizures that she couldn't just use tryptophan to fix it. It had something to do with the chemical in her brain that made her serotonin level dip below that of most X5's. But on these occasions her body would produce almost none, putting her into the risk the worse it got, of getting a Grand Mal seizure that could land her into a coma or kill her.

Mari Sanchez was a doctor and had been married to a Manticore scientist. When he had quit because he couldn't take the unethical practices of what they did, Lydecker had him killed.

Rae had met her initially when discovering what was wrong with her seizures and Marie had helped her with the problems they brought ever since

"I'll just get it ready, just go and change" Rae gave a clearly exhausted smile and went into a room off the side and took her clothes off, changing into a hospital gown. She hadn't told Jaye, so it would not worry him- it was too much to tell him just yet. And Rae did not want him to think she was weak.

---

Scott felt terrible as he opened Rae's door, and he almost stepped back and forgot the whole thing. But the stupid part of his mind urged him forward and walked inside her room. The shape was a carbon copy to his, small rectangular like he had thought it would be. It was neat and generally not cluttered, his room was cluttered and Piper's looked as if the pulse went off there.

Rae's bed had a simple dark blue quilt over it and a pillow at the head. Next to the bed was a small nightstand. One the nightstand was a clip on light with a small bottle of pills, half full next to it. Scott frowned and picked the bottle up._** Tryptophan**_, why did Rae have a health food supplement in her room? A small piece of information filtered through his mind, tryptophan was also used in homeopathy to control seizures.

And Rae did shake sometimes, but she had always said it was because she had a high metabolic rate. The more Scott thought about it, it had been a weak excuse. But what could he have known? Rae always went to her room or out if she shook. And why lie about some medical condition? It just didn't make any sense.

Scott noticed a box sticking out from under Rae's bed. He frowned and tugged it out and placed it on the bed._ Are you willing to risk Rae's privacy and her friendship on some stupid feeling?_ He hesitated in opening it, maybe there was a reason she was so private about her life, how was it her business. Then Scott remembered the stranger in Rae, he wanted to know her and be friends with the whole Rae -not just a mask.

Opening the box, the first thing Scott saw was a plain black folder. He picked it up and opened it. It was organized into neat sections and Rae's tiny scrawl marked the start of each section. _Well the only place to start is the beginning._

_---_

Jaye thought he had hated psychological warfare, all that analyzing and all that psychological babble. But Jaye hated something even more than that.

The section of the Miami's famous beaches they were in was full of people. People playing volleyball, people swimming, drinking and basically having an all night party.

"Don't Scott and Rae come with you normally?" asked Jaye with distaste in his voice.

Piper grinned and sipped her tequila sunrise. "No, Scott refuses to come to this things and Rae says it's more fun to have a quiet time when you come to the beach. Can you believe that?" Oh Jaye could believe it. And he was so leaving. Piper looked at him with wide eyes and a look that can best be described as the kicked puppy dog. "Come on, don't bail".

Jaye scowled. "This isn't my idea of fun". Piper rolled her eyes and stared up at him.

"What is, going to bed on time like a good little boy?" Jaye bristled. Who was insulting him? The ever-happy social butterfly that seemed to never have a serious expression on her face. Always revved and ready to go. Piper smiled at his expression and sighed.

"Now look, I asked you here so I could get to know you. You have become Rae's friend really fast, which I was surprised at. Rae knocked out the last intern assigned to her" Piper put her drink down. "So could you please try?"

_Try again, 600._

_But it's so hard for me, its easy for you you're the CO_

He was not giving this a chance. And of course Piper cared, she was Rae's best friend. Someone to look out for Rae just like Scott. Someone to be there for her. And suddenly Jaye realized a little something about why these people were Rae's friends.

Jaye nodded. "Okay".

---

Rae was laying on the doctor's table on her stomach, with her head propped up by her arms. Her body was periodically shaking, something she had hid up until this point.

"Normally you call before this, I was afraid that Manticore had caught you". Rae shook her head.

"Manticore, catch me? Now that is a stretch of the imagination" Rae said calmly with a twitch to her lips. Mari fixed her with a stern set to her face.

"Don't get complacent Chica, not for a second you hear? The young transgenic nodded and looked up, sharing a look with the older woman. They both knew Rae was complacent, and it was how she dealt with her past. Tried to have an ordinary life to the hardest of her abilities. And on some level Rae knew it was probably going to cost her freedom one day.

"I hear you. So let's get this hell over with". Rae put her head down and laid her arms flat. Mari restrained them as well as the legs to the side, for both Rae's treatment and her own protection.

Next she picked up a cerebro-spinal syringe and lined it along Rae's spine. The she stuck it in hard and slowly, the liquid in the syringe draining.

Rae let out a an unearthly scream of intense pain that seemed to go on forever even though it only lasted the few minutes the syringe was their. Her limbs involuntarily lashed out, held back by the restraints.

"Thank you" Rae said smiling weakly as she walked to her motorcycle and sat on it. Mari just folded her arms.

"Remember to stick clear of any confrontations for the next few days. Your body is still recovering from its serotonin deficiency and you won't be able to hold your own in a fight like you normally would".

"Okay, I will do that". If Ben cooperated, that was. Mari stood back as Rae, put her helmet on, started her bike and rode down the street. She felt tired, but she was happy to have that over. The worst, most painful place Rae had ever been in Manticore, this went beyond that. Rae could be unconscious for the procedure but it was a risk she had never cared to take. No one in her position and in the right mind would put their life completely in hands of another. Even if you trusted that person.

Increasing the speed, Rae flitted in and out of the traffic. A few of the motorists swore violently and she just smiled. None of the dirty streets seemed to annoy her; the depression that riddled Miami for a moment it didn't matter. Going full throttle into the parking area for the apartment, Rae braked hard stopping inches from the wall.

Rae slipped off her helmet and walked up the stairs, keeping a hand near the rail. Inserting the key into the apartment door, it clicked and Rae walked inside. She was surprised by how dark it was.

Her sensitive eyes focused on Scott in the dark, holding something- her information folder. Rae froze, stunned. Everything in there was about Manticore, her, everything. Rae had decided not to keep the files on computer, in case Manticore gained access. A hard copy was that much easier to get rid of. But Rae was regretting that decision. She flicked on the light and looked at Scott.

"You went through my room". Scott gave her a sad smile.

"I wish I hadn't. But that's the thing about knowledge, it can't be unlearned like a mind wipe in the X Files. It just stays there". Rae turned around and swallowed hard and then turned back to him.

"How much do you know".

"That," Scott said. "You are not human. At first it seemed like a cruel joke and then I realized it was for real. You are not a person; you are some kind of walking weapons system. You can't even feel anything can you?" Rae flinched as if he had hit her.

"I am a person as well Scott, you don't understand" Rae glared and Scott felt her rage from there and stepped back." If you read a lot of that file you would know just the facts. Here is something else. When I was only eight and a half, the man you read about Colonel Lydecker, shot my older sister Eva. I saw my sister's body fall to the ground, and believe me I felt something. Oh yes when I found out my brother Jack got dissected like a lab rat I felt more than just something". Rae spun on her heel and ran from the apartment.

"Rae!" Jaye walked past her, half carrying a drunk but happy Piper who was singing. Jaye looked at Scott as he let go of Piper and she stumbled to her room. "What is going on?"

"I took one plus one and got eleven".

---

It was approaching dawn and the building where Manticore had temporarily set up shop in Miami was white and non-descript from outside.

Inside was a whole different matter, and was buzzing with activity and equipment.

A scientist attached a small piece of what seemed to be tissue to 494's barcode and pressed. The tissue seemed now to be skin and obscure the last number of the barcode turning it from a four to a three. Lydecker watched with interest and an aide approached him.

"Sir, the director's on the satellite link and she isn't that happy". Lydecker gave a look of resignation and went with the aide, going into the video conference room. The aide left and closed the door behind him.

The woman on screen had light blond platinum hair and dark, hard brown eyes. She was in her late forties, and was the director of her Manticore facility and was technically Lydecker's superior although she couldn't actually make him do anything.

"Deck, I expected you here for this meeting. Not off vacationing in Miami of all places." Lydecker resisted in urge to insult her, someone with a bad record of her own in more recent times. And with an adult X5.

"I am here tracking down X5 478 and X5 493 as you know from the reports".

"For some reason Deck" said Elizabeth Renfro leaning forward. "They, for the last few weeks have been misplaced and I have only had the barest of details. I don't suppose you would have any idea how that happened?"

"I wouldn't" Lydecker answered, "You would have to check your own staff for that" Renfro seemed to let it go.

"So do we think 493 is in Miami because of 478?" Lydecker shook his head.

"No. My best guess is it was just by chance. But Ra-478, will most likely try to make contact with him, to try to stop him". Renfro caught his slip of the tongue and smiled.

"Oh I forget Deck, you like to call them the names they gave each other." The scorn in the woman's voice was apparent. Renfro leaned forward. "I think I'll head to Miami, and help you. After all the rogue X5s are a top priority." The screen disconnected when Renfro made a chopping motion in the background. Lydecker was not happy. Renfro had started taking a high level of interest in his kids, and he knew from experience with her that was not a good thing.

So the faster 494 captured Rae, the better.

---

Rae was sitting on a bench near a beachfront, the sun already getting high in the sky. It was by all accounts a beautiful Miami day. It was Saturday so the beaches were full of people there for a good time.

_You can't feel anything, can you?_

Rae had sat there all night, not really moving. She couldn't forget the look on Scott's face that betrayed look, as if she was- Rae bit her lip and closed her eyes. It just hurt too much, the rejection and she hugged her legs closer to her body.

"Rae" She turned around and Ben stood there, a few metres away.

"I thought I was going to have to chase you all over Miami" Rae said taking a step closer. Her brother's serious face looked uncharacteristically light and Rae hugged him. She glanced at his barcode and then smiled apologetically at him.

"I am sorry Ben, can't be too careful. I know that you have a clone from Jaye".

494 almost breathed out in relief, but reminded his self to stay in character. According to 493/Ben's psychological profile he was more serious and quiet.

"Jaye?" he asked with a more of a focus in his voice.

"He is Zack's clone, can we go somewhere more quiet to talk Ben. Lydecker is here and I don't want to tip him off.

494 smiled. "Of course". This was too easy, soon he'd be kicking it with Biggs and hoping that they would have a mission in Dakota again soon so they could see Lola again.

---

Scott sat, uncomfortable in Jaye's car. Jaye had his eyes to the road and looked to be barely restraining his anger. His car was an old beat up black jeep.

"Which church did you see Ben at?" His tone was terse and Jaye barely even looked at him and kept his dark green eyes on the road. He had blown up at Scott. Any negative feelings Scott had towards Rae had dissipated, he had always seen himself as a very understanding person.

Scott had always been furious when he watched science fiction shows the X Men especially. He had never understood why humans hated mutants so much, had hated the people trying to make it worse. And Scott had been as bad as any of those racist monsters. He was still angry at Rae for lying to him but most of all Scott was angry at himself.

"At the one my grandfather's funeral was held". Jaye nodded sharply and turned the car violently and sped down the street.

"Why are we going there?"

"Because" spat Jaye, "Rae sent me a message that she was talking to Ben. No thanks there to you". Scott looked out the window uncomfortably.

"How was I supposed to react? Oh Rachel Larter, you are a genetically engineered soldier, way to go! Let's get out the balloons and streamers", Scott rubbed his eyes.

"You are supposed to be one of the people closest to her" Jaye said with gritted teeth. "Now I may be new to the having friends concept but you are supposed to be understanding?"

"It's a little more complicated than that. She never trusted me or Piper, anybody enough to tell them the truth". Jaye parked the car outside the church and turned to Scott.

"I don't know why Rae kept it a secret or why she didn't tell you. You can ask her that once we find her".

Jaye and Scott walked into the church. Up near the altar, Ben was placing something there and looking up at the statue of the Virgin Mary. He turned and caught sight of them. He tried to run out the door but Jaye jumped on top of him and pinned him down.

"Ben" Jaye yelled. "We need to know where Rae is". Ben gave him a dark look.

"Do you believe in the lady?" Jaye put a vicegrip on Ben's throat, making it difficult for him to breathe. No one was in the main area of the church, which stopped any awkward questions or looks. Scott just hoped no one looked in or they would be serious trouble

"Don't screw with me Ben, where is your sister? I know she came to see you". Ben pushed him off, coughing.

"I have not talked to Rae at all." Ben, said, a note of concern entering his in Scott's opinion, creepy serious voice. Jaye looked at Scott and he frowned.

"If you are a clone of Zack then couldn't the person Rae saw be a twin of uh…him," Scott was afraid, the looks Ben were sending him were terrifying. Jaye's expression fell in dismay. Ben did have a twin.

"494- it's a trap. And Rae's in the middle of it" Jaye got up and sprinted toward the door and paused. "Scott, let's go, you too Ben. What were you doing in there?"

"Making the lady strong, she needs the teeth of the faithful to keep her strong". Jaye looked disgusted and Scott felt his stomach heave,

"How will we know where they went? "Asked Scott avoiding looking at Ben as he slid in the front passenger seat.

"Where would you go to get away from people, a secluded spot?"

"The old power station just outside the city, there's a area that is real isolated from the road". Jaye nodded sharply, they would just have to hope that was the right place. If they called Rae, even if they got through to her, 494 could overhear the conversation and they would have TAC teams on their tail. He looked at his companions, Scott- a human doctor who seemed to be distracted by his own issues and Ben an X5 psychopath who killed people so he could take their teeth to make the 'lady' strong.

Jaye hoped to hell that Manticore was not already there.

---

The old PowerStation was next to a large river and the place looked like a riot hit it. The bridge there was old and broken, running along the power station and then across the river. There was metal wiring stopping things from getting under the bridge that was rusted. The pulse had hit the station and people had destroyed what the pulse hadn't, in rage for it failing.

"When I meant more quiet, I didn't mean the middle of nowhere". Rae felt weird, like something was really off. Her instincts were telling her something was off. Lydecker had always taught them was that 99 of the time; a good soldiers instincts were right on. That if something felt wrong, it was wrong.

Ben had been quiet the whole way on the bus and even walking to this spot only talking to insist that this was the 'safest' place. Rae saw a small old scar just above his barcode-

_There hadn't been a scar there yesterday._

She was a fool. It was really all too easy to change someone's barcode temporarily. So if this was not Ben then it was- a hand blurred and Rae felt a sharp jab at her side. Ben's twin pushed down the plunger for the needle.

"You're not Ben".

There was a smile. "No, I am the loveable and completely sane 494. You are the rogue X5 478 and must I say, has grown up to be quite the looker. But hey, it's in the genes". Rae flung a leg out and kicked him away and pulled the needle out.

"I am awake, some type of psychoactive?" Rae asked. 494 just smirked at her, assured of his position.

"Too bad it doesn't work on me," Rae said smiling and crushed the syringe with her hand. 494's expression faded and he assumed a battle ready position. Rae was tired and still recovering from yesterday. But she matched him.

"Walk away," warned Rae. 494 laughed and punched out, Rae blocked him, her arms hurting from the effort. She swung a leg to hit him in his weak male spot but 494 grabbed her leg and flipped it. Rae fell on her back and sprang up. She turned faster than 494 could track and ran towards the unstable bridge. 494 took after her.

Rae was smaller, lighter and faster but 494 was in perfect condition and training, it made them even. She stepped on the old bridge and it groaned, shaking.

"Don't do anything stupid 478. Come on Manticore is not that bad". Rae edged further onto the bridge.

494 groaned and stepped onto the bridge. Rae backed slowly away and held the rails tight.

"They will go a hell of a lot easier on you if you hand yourself in".

"Only in a completely wrong parallel universe" Rae said, and smiled slightly. She picked too much up from Scott, and now she needed to get through this to fix their friendship.

494 hit Rae hard in the stomach and she stepped back hard, the wind knocked out of her. The plank flipped and hit Rae on the back of the head and she blacked out. She fell into the water, under the bridge through the opening.

"Shit" 494 swore colorfully and tried to rip the board back up. An X5 could stay over five minutes underwater if need be, but that was holding your breath and fully conscious. Damn 478's stubbornness. What was with the stupid 0'Niners and their melodramatic death rather than capture. The board came up and was stuck slightly on a tire that was in the water. 494 pushed it harder in frustration and paused looking into the water. A car had breached the wall of the power plant; there was another way to get to her. 494 ran across the bridge, so fast causing it to crack in several places.

He ran through a broken door and climbed down the metal stairs where water had collected and the truck was in part of the hole. 494 dove into the water, holding his breath. One of 478's legs was under wheel, keeping her from floating to the surface. He swam over and pulled her by the arms, making sure he was not just holding her black cotton jacket. She came free and 494 pulled her back through the hole and out of the water.

494 dragged her outside into the light and put her down. She was not breathing. All of a sudden a force threw 494 off his feet and he flew several feet away. 494 found himself looking into the face of his twin whose features were filled with rage. Jaye held Ben back. "No, he is not worth it right now".

Scott, who had been waiting in the car, got out and ran to Rae. "Rachel, no don't do this, not now".

494 froze, memories freezing him where he was_. "In case you hadn't noticed, I've been sort of throwing myself at you for the past few weeks". The pool, Rachel's smile, " Don't you like me?" " I like you." Sandoval. " Have you been briefed on your target, X5-494?" "I like you a lot." "Your only thought is to follow our orders." "Because if for some reason we lost confidence in you...we'd have no need for you." "I love you" Rachel slapped him. The car burst into flames. Psy ops. In the basement with the other Manticore mistakes. "Rachel!"_

"She's not breathing, but there's still a pulse". Scott put his mouth to Rae's, breathing out and then glanced at Rae's chest, counting. "One, two," Scott repeated the process several times before Rae suddenly coughed out a mouthful of water. 494 inhaled sharply from where he was sitting on the ground.

Rae opened her eyes slightly for a moment and gave a weak smile, before closing them again. Scott grinned looked up. "She is going to be okay". Ben gave 494 a dark look who was still looking dazed.

---

"I am sorry I did not tell you" Rae said softly. She was sitting in Jaye's car just outside an abandoned warehouse Ben had asked to be dropped off at. A blanket was over her. Ben had promised to leave the city, and Jaye had added when Rae had been asleep, not to come back. 494 was sitting in the back with Scott, his hands and everything else pretty well tied up. They didn't know what to do with him. 494 had seen Scott's face, Rae's face and had heard too much to just let him be.

Scott looked down. "You probably had your reasons" Rae shook her head.

"I did the wrong thing for all the right reasons. A friendship is based on trust, not someone lying because she was afraid that her friends would never look at her the same way".

"Not a chance" Scott said, clasping Rae's hand. Her smile widened Scott and his alien friendship handshakes.

"Oh please, what's next the secret handshake?" asked 494, sarcastically, grinning at his own remark. Rae's eyes darkened and she looked at the back seat.

"Be quiet 494".

Scott frowned. "We can't keep calling him a number, it sounds too weird- you and Jaye have names". 494 rolled his eyes and his head in the back of his seat, hard considering he was pretty well secured.

"Jaye named himself, and my sister Tinga named me when I was four" Rae grinned. "We could call him Baka, the Japanese word for idiot".

Jaye walked back to them, having heard the conversation. Ben drove off in a car and waved to Rae with a serious expression. She dipped her head slightly.

"How about Alec as in smart aleck?" Scott unsuccessfully hid his smile and Rae nodded.

"Thus forth, thy name is Alec".

494/ Alec gave a look that said he thought they were crazy. Jaye had a predatory look in his eyes and whispered something in Alec's ear, too softly for anyone to hear it but Alec. Alec went white slightly.

"Alec is fine" he grumbled.

---

Rae was laying on the depilated sofa in the middle of the main room of their apartment and Scott was out of sight in his room when Piper walked in.

"Where were you two all day?" Piper asked. "Larson was asking and for some reason he got cranky when I said you had been abducted by aliens. And you look like hell Rae".

Rae sat up and looked over at Piper. If today had taught her anything it was that the truth would come out one way or another and again if today was any judge that was a bad thing.

"I need to tell you something". Piper walked over, and she leaned on the sofa's edge. Rae sighed, and then looked Piper in the eye. "You know how I am not exactly normal, well I am not. I am a genetically enhanced super solider escaped from a government lab over ten years ago"

Now Rae had expected to hear that laugh, as if Piper thought she was joking. Or to have to explain it better. But Piper laughed softly and looked down. And when she looked up, Rae noticed that her friend was biting her lip.

"I know already, I looked through your room last year and found stuff and put it together alright?" Rae raised her eyebrows in shock.

"You knew!"

"Well remember when I was a little weird 'round you around midway last year?" Rae nodded and leaned forward, listening. "When I found out, I got a little weirded out, but I figured out even if you are different, you were still the Rae I have always cared about like family and set up with blind dates. And I just knew one day you'd tell me when you were ready". Rae's smile went so wide that all her teeth were visible. Scott poked his head out and stared at Piper.

"You don't have a thing for privacy do you?"

"Not really" said Piper shrugging. She then narrowed her eyes slightly and smiled. "And how did you find out?"

Scott opened his mouth and all that came out was a half mumbled which included words such as 'pain in the-' and other such delightful praises. Rae stood, bracing her self and hugged Piper.

Piper gave a questioning look and Rae smiled. "For being my friend, despite everything". Piper made a crazy sign towards her head

'I would be your friend if you were anything… as long as you never turned into Larson". Rae laughed and threw a pillow weakly at Piper who ducked.

---

Lydecker was standing, staring out the window with a pensive look on his face. 494 had gone missing, in the end they had found Ben's abandoned hide out after the fourth body had been discovered. Rae had somehow won against 494 after he had sent a message here that he had met with her.

Even though Lydecker had failed, he felt a rush of pride if not Ben's getaway, at Rae's success. It proved that she had not forgotten everything.

"Good evening Deck", Renfro walked in and the sat herself at his desk. "I hear things didn't go to plan." Lydecker didn't turn.

"478 proved more resourceful than we had first fought. All that is required it that we amend our approach". Renfro stood and folded her arms, and joined him

"How do we do that" Renfro asked, looked at him.

"By finding her weak spot. No one is without their weaknesses, not even my kids. Her weak spot will be her undoing"

"I hope so," Renfro said with a slightly threatening tone to her voice as she left the room and Lydecker continued to contemplate the city. It seemed all the younger of his kids; Max, Krit, Rae and before his capture Kavi, needed to stay in one place. Needed the connection. Most of the older ones migrated constantly, making them hard to pin down. Zack had handed himself in, to save Max from capture. But this time Lydecker was going to make sure that when he sprung the trap, this time Rae would not get away.

---

Jaye was in his apartment, it's walls covered with graffiti but other than that it was in fine condition. He was pouring over a medical textbook that Larson had given him. Jaye had gone to apologize for missing work, the medical supervisor had given him the five hundred odd page textbook and said they would talk about what it had in it in the morning. And if Jaye didn't, Larson had promised a very, very unpleasant day.

"Is this really necessary" drawled a sarcastic voice. Alec was tied to a chair that he had nailed down to the floor and was in Jaye's opinion the only move to make.

Jaye closed the text and looked over at Alec. 'Why did you stop when Scott called Rae 'Rachel'". Alec snorted derisively, but a look of pain entered his eyes for an instant.

"No I didn't"

Jaye dropped the issue and looked at Alec who just rolled his eyes and complained about the old, ill functioning TV and about being stuck watching police arrest shows and the news. There was something underneath it all, Alec's attitude everything. Something underneath it all.

_What did Manticore do to you?_

_---_

_So Ben is gone and I have lost the chance to try to help him. I have to live with that, without my family like I have since the escape. But Piper's right, we are like family, me, Scott, her and Jaye. The old cliché is right, the truth does set you free- kind of. I can't try to be ordinary around them, but maybe that's the point. I am never going to be another face on the street but I can be me. _

_Alec's a bit of a mystery, he went strange when I was called Rachel. What about that name set him off too bad? What is it about his past and that name?_

_Whatever the reason, I have to deal with what's happening now. With the people I care about, I am going to get through whatever comes my way. Lydecker has already failed there, because to them I am as good as human._

T.B.C

Alec in the story was a spur of the moment idea by the way.

Anyway for those who want a face to the characters and have missed episodes here are the people who are the face of the main characters; Eliza Dunzhu/Piper, Corin Nemec/Scott, Anthony Stewart Head/Larson, Jensen Ackles/ Ben and Alec, William Gregory Lee/ Jaye, John Savage/Lydecker, Nana Visitor/Renfro and finally Rae/Milla Jovovich (the pics where she had brown hair). And Jaye's name for Alec: Tray as in Cas'tray'ted, yes he has a bad sense of humor.


	3. Wish upon a Star

Disclaimer: The usual rant, don't own DA and still waiting to here if we get a third season, for details see my forum. I do own the DVD set of Season One and Two of Dark Angel though. And the ideas, plot, story and any characters not recognized from the show is mine, and Anya belongs to Mage Alia. This takes place during "Out"

Chapter Three-Wish upon a Star

Nevada, 2012

A young girl ran, out of breath and tears tracked down her face. The desert night was cold and harsh, but the girl's fear made her go on.

Her light pink dress was stained with sweat and blood and her neat hair was now a mess.

Finally she fell to the ground, exhausted. She crawled on her knees and curled underneath a rock and hoped that the bad man would not find her.

_Sandoval addressed him in the office. Have you been briefed on your target, X5-494? _

" _Yes, sir. Robert Berrisford." 494's answer was straight and proper _

" _Our intelligence indicates that Berrisford's been curious lately about the work we do here--asking questions he shouldn't be. Close surveillance has become a necessity. "_

" _Yes, sir. "_

_Sandoval seemed pompous, enjoying the command and control over him." We've established a cover for you. Initially, your primary contact will be with his daughter." _

" _Yes, sir. According to the file, her name is Rachel. She's seventeen. Only child. Mother died when she was ten. She's a good student"_

Miami, Florida. 2019

Alec woke up, the room was still dark and there was the barest hint of morning in the sky, and dark clouds on the horizon obscured even that. The aches and stiffness returned from being almost constantly restrained. At first he had though it would be easy to escape from Jaye/600's clutches. But Jaye was using the evil knowledge called Medicine to restrain him, to sap his strength and speed. Source it was of his evils. Rae/478 was no better and would glare at him every time he as much as looked in her direction when she was watching him. Alec supposed it didn't help that he had almost killed her. But that was days ago and she still held it against him, anyway it was partially her fault. If she had gone in voluntarily, none of it would have happened. Somehow Rae seemed to get even more irritated when he had mentioned that. Go figure. One of their human friends Scott had watched him once and that was worse than the two rogue X5s.

Scott would try to run comparisons between Alec and some stupid character on some science fiction. And talking about redemption and the dark side of the force, and that was just plain disturbing to Alec.

Redemption, something Alec hated hearing. It was 478 and 600 who needed to be redeemed, to do what they were meant to do and do the right thing and return to Manticore. Instead they both seemed to be on this bloody pathetic crusade as doctors, to somehow make up for their Manticore years. What did a solider need with redemption

"_Once you have children, everything changes. You try to do the right thing, because you want them to be proud of you, but sometimes the right thing can go so wrong. Anyway...I envy you." Sandoval. "Take them both out. That's pretty decisive. You'd better get back there. Lesson starts at four, doesn't it? " Rachel smiling that smile that lit up the room._

Alec clenched his fists, Rachel was dead, because of his failure, his attachment to her and because he had forgotten the objective. It was his fault.

Alec heard Jaye get up and he wiped the expression from his face as the other X5 came out, dressed already. Jaye had made the mistake of once coming out in only a top and boxer shorts-Alec had made a comment that had said how his choice of colors just screamed 'needs to come out of the closet'.

"Ready for another day at the office chap?" asked Alec with a mock English accent in his voice. Jaye ignored him and pulled open the cupboard and pulled down a medical case. Alec glared at it and then Jaye for good measure.

Jaye approached Alec with the syringe filled with the clear liquid that unknown to the unwilling patient was some kind of enhanced version of Librium, not enough to knock him out, but enough to restrain him.

He injected straight into the vein and Alec felt a now famillar nausea come over him. When it had past, Jaye undid his restraints.

"I hate you" Alec said darkly.

"Thank you" Jaye replied with a mock affectionate smile on his face.

---

Piper was sitting on her morning post of the bench when Rae came out of her room. Her best friends knowing the truth about her and accepting her, barcode and all was something Rae still was coming to terms with. It was great and something she had always wanted them to know.

But it all felt too perfect and easy, Rae felt as if she was still waiting for something bad to undo it. An old insecurity that nothing could go right for her was close to the surface. Lydecker's continued presence in Miami was also under her skin. It chipped away at the old fears she had and was causing her nightmares to be more vivid, real feeling than usual.

"Good morning my little ray of sunshine" Piper said, hopping of the bench observing the green eyed transgenic. "Scott left ten minutes ago, Higginson from Cardiology took him".

"That's great" Rae said, her voice distant. Piper leaned over and flicked the young woman in the face. "Hey!"

"Well if someone was not a grumpy gills this morning, I would not have to hurt her" Piper said without any trace of remorse. Rae rolled her eyes slightly and crossed her arms. "You were talking your sleep last night and you… mentioned Brin".

'It was just a dream that is all" Rae said. Piper's look of concern did not fade and she folded her arms.

"Sounded more like a nightmare to me". Rae just shook her head and opened the fridge, hiding her face from view. It had been a nightmare, every moment of it had felt as if she were standing there and it was real. In the start it had seemed okay, like one of her dreams being reunited with the others. This one had been of Brin, but not the sister Rae remembered. X5 734, the cold, dark Manticore automaton who was trying to take her back and she just remembered how in that dream; being frozen, unable to move or fight back, just standing there.

The dreams made sense and that what Rae hated about them the most- it represented what she feared would become of her sister stuck in that hell. She picked out a container partly filled with tuna mixed with baked beans.

Piper grimaced and gave a weak smile." How can you eat that?"

"They messed up one of my genes, so I need to eat things that are to most others, pretty inedible". Rae shrugged and her voice was neutral. "Or I like this and love the added bonus of making you go green". Piper stuck her tongue out. "You know it's not too late to back out of Alec sitting if you don't want to- this is your day off".

"I'll cope" Piper said, grinning. "Race ya to Jaye's apartment?" Jaye's car had bit the dust two days earlier after someone had stolen the engine. Which made a car pretty hard pretty hard to drive. But it made a pretty good lawn ornament. Rae matched the speed freak smile of Piper's.

"You are on".

---

Jaye smiled as Piper and Rae walked in the apartment. Alec who had one arm chained with strong chains to a solid metal beam was sitting on the floor with a bored expression on his face.

Alec looked at the satisfied look on Rae's face and the slightly disappointed look on Piper's face." Did you get to be on top 478?"

"You are so immature, I can't believe sometimes you are a transgenic" Rae spoke with a disgusted note in her voice. Piper's face was shielded, not showing any emotion and Jaye just pointed at Alec, muttering a threat as he walked out the door.

Rae waited a second putting a hand underneath her dark blue coat and withdrew a tranquilizer gun. She passed it to Piper who looked it and put it on the bench.

"Last resort, but the stuff will lay him out for hours. It only works on transgenics, so don't try anything Alec". Rae walked to the door and gave a small wave to Piper and left.

"So, want to play Go Fish?" Piper said smiling at Alec who had an all suffering look on his face and didn't answer her. Piper walked over to the window and saw Rae and Jaye leaving.

"They are gone" Alec said, more of a statement really. Piper nodded not really paying him close attention. Alec stood as best he could with an arm chained to the wall and Piper turned around. " Then we need to talk". Piper perked up and sat on the edge of the windowsill.

"You want to talk about your life". Alec rolled his eyes.

"No about, why you should do the right thing" Piper looked slightly apprehensive now.

"What are you talking about?" Piper was liking this thread of topic less and less. Alec sounded serious and she had no idea where he was heading with this.

"Come on, you seem to be a smart woman with a good sense of the correct course of action. Your, friend Rae is not some poor little stray on the run from a big bad monster. She is a solider". Piper's smile was more tired now and she crossed her arms.

"I am not going to listen to a pro Manticore is safe for bunnies speech, got that, cause I am sure that it has not been all lollipops for you either".

_Alec reached the driveway just in time to see Berrisford's car explode into flame. "RACHEL!" screamed Alec in horror._

Alec's eyes darkened for a second and Piper straightened up in slight amazement at his reaction. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"It does not mean anything. So go ahead, try to go on about my dark past" Alec started sarcastically. " It makes no difference to me".

---

"It's getting really windy out there" Rae said darkly to Scott, looking out through window at the dark clouds. The weather had gotten progressively bad and at midday when the sun should be brighter than ever, the sky was dark and foreboding. "I just hope the weather will hold together until tonight"

"Now Larter it is going to get bad and you two are going to have such fun going home". Rae and Scott looked at each other and then at Larson.

"Now" Larson said, enjoying the fact he had their attention. "Larter go and 'help' Krieghen, I believe he just told some elderly patient some really bad joke about her imminent death".

Rae winced and bolted off. Larson rocked back on his heels and laughed, not pleasantly either. Scott had a theory that Larson was really a snakehead and now that he had no territory thanks to SG 1, took his frustrations out on everybody else. Upon hearing this Piper had teased him mercilessly for a whole week and still mentioned it occasionally.

Scott left the older doctor and counted to three before he opened a patient's door. A man, only a few years older than Scott was laying in the bed. The man- Christopher Ogilvy had a tumor in his brain but refused to get treatment saying that he would rather die with dignity than trying to cling on to false hope.

And unfortunately the guy had rich relatives who were hell-bent on getting him to change his mind, so this room which would have been better suited for someone who gave a damn about saving their own life.

"How are you today Chris" Scott asked politely looking at the chart. The man's condition was declining and within weeks even if Chris changed his mind, it would be too late to do anything.

Scott had seen it before, people who were obsessed with going out with pride and then took a look at Death's door and then changed their mind, running back screaming.

'Same as I was yesterday Doc, dying". Scott knew better than to try again but he did.

"It does not have to be this way, you can fight this- the survival rate may not look so great but you still have a chance if we take that tumor out, and start the drugs and chemotherapy".

Chris shook his head. "No way. After people get their tumors taken out, they can die from all kinds of complications like an aneurysm. And the cancer grows back in the majority of patients".

"Not everyone has cancer again, and not everyone dies from a brain aneurysm either".

Chris looked away and didn't answer. Scott sighed. It was times like this that being a doctor just didn't seem worth it.

"Why am I doing this again?" asked Jaye and Rae just gave him an incredulous look. Rae was making him write out a hundred times, no jokes with the patients because obviously all the other times she had told him had gone over Jaye's genetically enhanced mind. They were sitting in the main reception area of the hospital and just beyond the glass doors was the patient waiting area. Some people had sleeping bags; if waiting in a hospital had been bad pre pulse it was nothing compared to now.

"You just told that poor little old lady straight after telling her that she is on the verge of mass organ failure, 'All swell that ends well'". The old lady had burst into tears and Rae had spent the next fifteen minutes calming the woman down.

"I was just trying to make her feel better, doesn't humor put patients mind at ease?"

Rae's eyebrows went straight up." Humor works with some patients- properly time as well as the appropriate humor. And-" Her next words were cut of by screaming out in the waiting area. A group of armed men ran in, and smashed the door dividing the hospital from the waiting room.

They were not a TAC team, Rae could tell that from the way they were dressed, the armed men were dressed casually mostly, and some of them had tattoos.

They were from a gang, but what gang Rae did not know. She put a hand on Jaye's arm to stop him attacking them.

A man strode in. Michael Vercetti, and he was supporting his wife who was alternating between regulating her breathing and glaring at anyone who looked at her.

"Anya's in labor, would someone please help her before I reduce this place to rubble?" His voice had a very dangerous edge to it and most of the doctors and nurses looked absolutely terrified.

Rae growled in frustration and stormed out into the foyer. "Yes we will help her. But tell your men to wait outside, this is a hospital and not your territory. Otherwise, regardless of the consequences no one in this entire hospital will help you and on that you have my word".

Michael looked at her with a very shielded expression and then turned to his men. "You heard the female doctor, leave". Rae smiled slightly and turned around.

"Someone get a wheelchair for this woman!"

---

Alec looked at his face in the bathroom, and clenched his hands. His strength was returning, he had to fake the last week that it did not as to have Jaye find a better way to stop him. It had not mattered with the two rogue X5 because they would dose him up again just in case. But Alec had a window of opportunity here, one he didn't intend to waste.

"Can you stop admiring yourself and come out already" Piper said, poking her head in, she was holding the tranquilizer gun loosely.

Alec came out and Piper smiled with relief. Then Alec blurred and shoved the dark haired woman in the bathroom and closed the door. He then put a chair under the handle.

"Hey!" Piper cried out and tried to slam her body on the door, only succeeding on hurting herself. Alec shook his head and laughed, opening the gun making the darts all fell out. He stomped on them breaking them. He then went to the cupboard where the medical things were and pulled out the gun her had seen Jaye put there.

"I'll be in there in a second, and then we are going to take a little trip so I can tell exactly where your little friends are. If you are good, Manticore might not kill you"

In the bathroom, Piper dug in her pocket and pulled out her cellphone and furiously pressed the buttons. Just after she sent the message, there was the sound of the chair being pulled away from the door. Piper put her cell on the ground and without hesitating brought her foot down on it.

The door opened and Alec sighed. "So much for calling for a ride" There was no phone in the apartment. "Looks like we are walking, it's only a few clicks away". He pulled Piper's arm holding the gun. "Come on".

In Rae's locker, her cellphone buzzed.

---

"Okay, you have to push with the next contraction, not before okay Anya?"

Anya gave Rae a look that promised a lot of pain. If Rae had not been preoccupied she would have laughed at one of the most ruthless gang leaders in Miami history holding his wife's hand and wincing with the pressure it was under.

For a wisp of a woman, Anya was pretty strong.

In the locker room, Jaye was leaning against his locker alone when Scott came in. The weather was sounding worse by the minute.

"Can I ask you something?"

Scott looked at him. "What?"

Jaye crossed his arms. "Did Rae ever do anything well, not so good when it came to taking care of her patients" Scott frowned.

"Not really, the main problem she has is playing nice with idiots who get themselves and others hurt. Low tolerance and it has gotten Rae in trouble a few times. She is a great doctor, but Rae just doesn't understand why you have to be nice to all your patients".

Jaye smiled. "She probably gets it from Manticore, there is a real lack of tolerance for incompetence there, not that I'd ever say that to her".

Scott swallowed hard and the X5 looked at him with concern. "What's wrong?"

"It's just thinking about that place. I never used to know what gave her the nightmares that kept her awake at night. I know as a doctor, I have sworn to do no harm but when I think of … Manticore and everything they did to her, to you- I just want to…" Scott looked away. "I know I am better than that".

There was a long silence, interrupted only by the sound of an incessant cellphone chirping from Rae's locker.

"It does that" Scott said, changing the subject and going into the unlocked locker. He pulled out the cell. "Rae did it so she couldn't ignore it, and… " He broke off in shock and passed the cell to Jaye.

"Damn!" Jaye swore violently with words that Scott didn't think Manticore would have taught him. "We need to go now". He pulled out Rae's keys from her locker.

"Shouldn't we get Rae?" Scott asked pulling on a jacket. Jaye shook his head, a dark look of resignation.

"We give Alec anymore time, and it won't matter". Scott followed Jaye and the pair ran out into the staff parking as the wind picked up blowing everything around them.

Jaye slipped on the motorcycle and inserted the key, Scott hopped on behind him. One of the older nurses who had just come out of an ambulance looked at them with disgust and shook her head , walking back inside the hospital.

"I don't want to know what she thought" Jaye said, brushing it off. He started the motorcycle and it roared to life. Scott put on his helmet and the pair rode off. Jaye just hoped that they were not too late.

As they rode past a street, they passed a small café near the place they knew Alec was heading to. Donald Lydecker looked at Jaye and pulled out his radio.

---

There were very few times that Piper could say, absolutely were completely without redemption without any way around it. This was one of those times. She was being held at gunpoint, being forced by Alec to go to his base, so that Manticore could go after and capture Jaye and her best friend Rae. So they could use her and probably Scott too against them. The wind from the approaching storm, which judging by the gray sky was what it was had blown her hair so badly it was in all directions.

She stopped walking and Alec sighed.

"Don't force me to have to shoot you, cause then I have to carry you and that would really suck and we are almost there".

Piper gave him a self-satisfied smirk. "Then do it, cause I am not going any further, you and secret wacky government agency can just bite me". Alec waved the gun.

"Don't think I won't".

"Can you at least tell me about why who hesitated when Scott called Rae, Rachel. At least tell me why, I'll keep going but I think I should know- especially since you are destroying my life, and everyone else's that matters to me ".

For a second, Piper thought that Alec was going to shoot her and the he just sighed.

" Her name was Rachel Berrisford. I was on a mission to stop her father from exposing Manticore. Only I got in too deep".

"You loved her". It was not a question.

Alec looked away. "Her father was going to alert his friend in the Senate. I was told to eliminate her father and Rachel. I… couldn't go through it , I tried to save her"

"But you didn't". Alec had a look of self-loathing on his face that Piper had not seen on anyone's face for a long time.

"No, I didn't, the bomb I had planted- Manticore set it off. I never got to see what happened after the car blew up I tried to go to her but they took me. Then they spent the next seven months screwing with my mind until I was their happy little solider again. So now you know, it was my fault, so let's go".

Piper shook her head. "It was not your fault, okay?" That had come out more emotional than Piper would have liked it. She not that long ago had put that night in Nevada seven years ago to rest. "Wish upon a star and you hope it will fix everything, by following what you are told but it doesn't. Will it bring her back by doing this? Will it make what they did go away?"

_Rachel._

" _I love you._ _Your hands are shaking__"_

"_Yeah. I'm all right. I'm just happy."_

Alec closed his eyes and paused, trying to find a way to keep this together. "No"

Piper put her hands on his shoulders and shook him slightly and Alec opened his eyes. Her eyes were full of the humanity, the compassion he had seen in Rachel, Robert Berrisford, Rae, and Scott – all of them.

"Don't do this then. Do you think Rachel would want this?" Alec stepped back as if Piper had hit him.

"What's the point, I am what I am. I am not like your friends, this is who I have to be".

"No" Piper said vehemently. "You are whatever who wanna be. It's your choice".

_Robert Berrisford," You try to do the right thing…"_

Alec's choice, not Manticore's or anyone else's. At this moment the girl in front of him was not trying to save herself or anyone else. She was trying to reach him, and Alec knew now the truth Manticore had tried to hide from him, make him forget. He had loved Rachel Berrisford, been prepared to do anything just for one more moment. That they had taken that away from him.

"Well" Alec started after a minute, "I do look more the part than those two, so I guess it would not be the end of the world". Piper grinned.

"I guess I don't have to kill you" Alec and Piper turned and Jaye was there with a very shell-shocked looking Scott, more from the wild weather bike ride than anything else.

"I so could have taken you" Alec said with a smirk on his face, but he froze and Jaye looked in front of them.

"What is it?" asked Scott concerned, and then he and Piper heard it. The sound of men running from several directions towards them. Three men ran from the side, tazers raised. Jaye launched himself, hitting a brick wall and kicked two of men in the head, knocking them out. Alec punched the other one in the head.

"We have to get out of here" Jaye turned to Alec and threw him the keys. "Get Scott out of here, I will take Piper and we will meet up four blocks away, at where the old railway yard is… unless of course you have changed your mind".

Alec rolled his eyes at Jaye and nodded to Scott. "Come on 'Skywalker'" Scott glared at him and ran in the direction of the motorcycle.

Jaye waited until they were out of sight and he beckoned Piper to follow him down a drain opening. Piper groaned and followed him.

The noise of the wind died as he helped her down and the closed the covering. Jaye then heard the famillar sound of the TAC teams coming down from the right and grabbed Piper's hand and pulled her along around the corner.

When he turned the corner, Jaye froze. Tazers and guns were pointed straight at him and Piper; he turned around to find that men were filling in behind him. Game over.

---

Rae heard a crash of thunder as she watched Michael help his wife into their car. The twin boys (Dante and Michael) were already in the car, and the men who had came with the gang leader were leaving as well. Hopefully the new parents would choose a different hospital to crash next time rather than this one.

Michael gave a kind off wave with his bandaged left hand- it was fractured from the pressure Anya had somehow put on it. Rae watched them drive away. She would have to go back inside, a hurricane warning had just been issued and the sooner Rae got home the better.

_If it were anybody else, a normal family it would be sweet, but then what is a normal little family. It makes me think about my mother, just another girl off the streets that they paid to carry me. Not really my mother at all. I do wish that I could have had the fairytale childhood but then I really can't see myself taking ballet lessons._

_But there are the moments._

"RAE!" In shock Rae turned to see Scott getting of her motorcycle which Alec was riding. He ran up to her.

"What in the blue lady, what's going on?" Rae asked as Alec joined them and he looked really worried.

"Long version or the short version?" Rae glared at him.

"The short one that is filled with the facts"

"I kind of was going to take your friend Piper to the Manticore controlled base here, only she talked me out of it –" Rae cut him off.

"The end result?" Alec swallowed; this was mostly his fault.

"Manticore has Jaye and Piper" Scott said quietly, and Rae's eyes widened in shock and she stepped slightly back.

"No," Rae murmured." They, they can't- not now…" she trailed off and then looked at Alec and Scott. "We have to save them, Alec you know where Manticore is holed up here don't you?" Alec nodded and Rae lifted her head high.

"We are getting them back". The rain started to fall.

To be continued…

T.B.C

Okay end of chapter for now, meh, next chapter up next week.

Additional Characters, Anya Vercetti/ Sophia Myles, Michael Vercetti/ David Duchovny and Chris Ogilvy/ Brian Krause.

My muses are evil, evil creatures. The cliffhanger was their idea. In any case there was too much for the next part to load it as an entire chapter, as it stands next weeks will be pretty big. Okay. This was not on last night because the site crashed.

-Allison

Chapter Completed on 4/9/2006 or 9/4/2006 for Americans.


	4. Those Left Behind

Disclaimer: I do not own DA and we are up to the forth chapter so if you have missed the first three disclaimers, I recommend an optometrist, I do own the storyline, plot, scenarios and characters you don't recognize. Use anything from this without my permission and you will die a slow painful death. Mentions scene from Before the Dawn by Max Collins and the fanfiction Fallen by me. Timing, during Out, (the night where Max has to save Logan, again).

Chapter Four- Those Left Behind 

_Now this just is not fair, and I am not talking about the rules. I have not felt this scared since the night of the escape or when Lydecker killed Eva. And it's worse because I am not scared for me._

_Lydecker has Jaye and Piper and nothing is okay. I can't even pretend. _

In her mind, Piper had imagined when she met Lydecker there would be thunder and lightning-just for an instant. There was, but it was ongoing, just a vicious storm outside.

The man in front of her was to fail to find a better word- scary. Rae's description had been right on; light blond hair, hard sharp features and the usual things. What Rae had not mentioned was how his icy steel blue eyes seemed to drain the heat from the room. Jaye had been knocked out as soon as they had figured out that Piper was not a transgenic, in specific-Rae. They had waited in that sewer for five long minutes before working that out.

Not that they didn't take precautions- Piper was being very closely watched for threatening behavior by the two guards was by the spartan office's door. The only other remarkable feature about the room was a board behind Lydecker's desk that seemed to be covering something up. Lydecker was staring at her with no emotion is his face and Piper fought the urge to shiver.

"Who are you?" Lydecker's voice was quiet but there was an undertone of steel in there. Piper bit her lip, smiling and pretended to think hard. There were times Scott's constant sci-fi obsession came in handy- and this was one of those times.

"You got me, I'm Vala, Vala Malduran "Piper looked around the office, exaggerating her disinterest and then glanced at the younger of two guards and winked quickly. "Is he single?"

Lydecker did not give a sign that he was not amused but he gave her a long drawn out look. The kind of look that seems to go right through you.

"We can play these games Ms 'Malduran' but I want you to know what exactly I am willing to do here"

Lydecker moved from behind the desk and pressed a button and the board slowly began to come up from what it was covering.

The other emotion Piper was fighting apart from fear was hate. This man symbolized all the hell her best friend, Jaye and even Alec had gone through.

The board came completely up and Piper saw twelve photos in two rows. Each photo had a child with cropped hair in a military buzz cut and from the top half of them a hospital gown on. On the right hand bottom corner of each photo was a barcode and a series of numbers.

"I have spent over ten years tracking my kids down and it never fails to impress me how well they have performed, how far they will go to avoid capture. And I would do anything to make sure they come home, even if it meant dissecting you while you were still awake… watching your heart stop if it would bring me just an inch closer to them".

Piper swallowed her fear and focused on instead how much she disliked the man in front of her, how happy she would be if he dropped dead. "Well," she started. "If it meant you would never find her, I'd take that for the rest of forever" Piper smiled up at Lydecker. "Because you'd have the rip my heart out and even then I'd never tell you how to find her".

Lydecker's face was impassive, but Piper felt better. It was much better to go down fighting, than to scream the whole way and taking the people you loved with you. He took a file from the desk and opened it, taking out a picture and held it out to Piper who took it hesitantly.

The famillar light green eyes told her who the girl was before she had even looked the picture over properly. Rae, but the face was unlike the young woman Piper knew. The girl's face was ramrod straight and there was no familiar light in the eyes. The eyes were way too mature for Rae's young face; it was like someone who had seen too much to still be considered a child. The numbers under the barcode on the picture read X5 332786273478.

"When you see that" asked Lydecker, "what do you see?"

"I see a little girl that you tortured, stole a childhood from" Piper spoke quickly, trying to hide the raw emotion in her voice. Lydecker didn't seem to be interested, he picked up the file and turned to a certain page and read.

"X5 478 shows no hesitation or emotion when eliminating a subject. She will eliminate the target quickly and efficiently with as little deviation from orders as possible". Target, subject, eliminate, they were talking about a person, people they had Rae kill for mere practice.

"I have done things I will not, can not forget- or even forgive in myself" Piper was silent now. 

Lydecker looked at the guards; he had completed what he had wanted to communicate. The guards took Piper out of the room. From a hidden door in the room, Elizabeth Renfro walked out.

"I don't know about this one Deck" Renfro said, folding her arms. "That girl looks like she will keep quiet until she dies so regardless of what you tell 'Vala', I don't think she will help us".

"That," Lydecker said quietly. "Gives us the information we need. Think about it, for her to be protecting Rae so willingly at all costs, that tells us they must be close".

Renfro raised an eyebrow." You think that '478' will try to come for her and 600?" There was slight change of tone when she mentioned the designation, a barb directed to Lydecker for his attachment towards the rogue X5s. "And the fact that it's a trap so obvious that the homeless fools out there could pick it out let alone a transgenic".

Lydecker looked at Renfro, his neutral expression not changing despite his thoughts. " 478 will know this is a trap, but will use her abilities and the resources available to her such as X5 494 to her advantage".

Renfro bristled at the insult internally. 494's failed mission and then had been cleared from psy ops under the orders of Renfro. Though she had not had the primary contact to the mission, that had been Agent Sandoval, Renfro had been the one to call the shots and decide that the psy op department was right to release 494. Add that to the debacle with 600, who had been under Lydecker's command, his unit on loan from Renfro's smaller facility and it made her look even worse.

But at the moment Lydecker in the Committee's eyes seemed to do no wrong. The recent capture of 599 straight after 734 did not help either. The chances that Renfro would get control of Manticore seemed slimmer every day. When the time was right, Renfro would 'remove' Lydecker from the equation. Permanently.

---

In her apartment, Rae sat on the bed lacing her boots up. She was focusing on preparing for the task at hand, rather than at what was at stake. It was the only way the transgenic could keep sane.

The weather outside was getting worse by the minute but from the look of it and predictions from Canada the full storm would not hit for another two hours. Most of Miami's weather warnings and forecasts came from another country now, the pulse having destroyed most of the systems in place.

Rae jumped off the bed and opened the small cupboard jammed into the corner of her. A gun lay on top of a crumpled blanket, and Rae picked it up and checked inside the cartridge. Just like she remembered, empty. She had used up the last bullets in target practice. The idea of using it was distasteful, the revulsion coming from what had happened to Eva and Rae the doctor. But just because she didn't like it, didn't mean it was not going to be used. On a mission, emotions could not be allowed to cloud your judgement. Rae winced, that was one lesson she wanted to forget.

_Lydecker strode in front of the class of X5s."On a mission, nothing can matter but the objective; nothing can be allowed interfere with the objective. Particularly pointless emotions and attachments" He seemed stared straight at Rae and then looked over the others._

"_599, 210, to the front". Zack and Jondy quickly got to the front of the room with Lydecker and saluted._

"_599, break 210's wrist at the joint"._

_Zack's face didn't seem to change but it was clear to the unit he was shocked. Jondy was apprehensive. Rae glanced quickly at Brin and her older sister's eyes mirrored her worry. _

"_Sir?" Zack asked. Lydecker's face hardened._

'_That was an order soldier, carry it out!" Zack looked at Jondy and hesitated. Then he broke her wrist, as gently as he could manage it but Jondy still gave a look of pain._

"_You hesitated. When command gives an order you never hesitate. Your thoughts should be on only your orders. NOTHING else matters, 478 front!"_

_Rae quickly joined Jondy and Zack, saluting briefly to Lydecker._

"_Repeat the orders, to 599". Rae's mind froze, she could not do that. Zack seemed to forget his caution and was sending her looks to just do what she was told._

"_478!"_

"Rae" Alec spoke as he opened the door slightly and poking his head in. The 0'Niner was putting bullets into a revolver, and didn't seem to be 'with it' When her head snapped up, her eyes were the inhuman solider that every transgenic was. Then her eyes seemed to clear. Rae hated it when she had a flashback like that. That had been almost a year before the escape. She had never ended up following the order, Rae had been sent to isolation for an entire week for disobeying Lydecker.

"Alec" Rae said, slipping the gun on to her belt. "I think our safest route to Manticore's base of operations here is alternating public transport until we are about a quarter of a click away and then proceeding using the weather and existing infrastructure as cover. Agreed?"

"Yes, you sound really weird" Alec chuckled. "You sound like one of Renfro's lap- loyal transgenics". Rae was slightly annoyed by the insult and then paused.

"Who is Renfro?"

"Ahh" Alec started. "You wouldn't know huh. Well, you would have to use a nuclear bomb to extract Renfro's personality… okay, okay" he said at the bored look on Rae's face." She runs a small Manticore facility, where I came from and your friend Jaye. Supposed to be Colonel Lydecker's superior although he does have more power. Makes everyone's life a misery cause of it, complete opposite of Piper-".

He broke off. Rae's face looked determined and she opened the door and went out into the main room. "You ready?" she asked a stubborn note to her voice Alec had not heard there before. He nodded as Scott came out and Alec burst out laughing. The idiot was wearing a black zip up jacket and black jeans. There was a pair of black sunglasses covering his eyes as well as dark navy blue woolen gloves.

"What are you meant to be?" Alec said, trying to stop laughing but failing miserably. Scott's eyebrows knitted and he gave a confused look from behind his sunglasses.

"I know about being stealthy so, I thought I should do it properly". Alec continued laughing until Rae kicked him in the knee, hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to injure him.

"Scott…" Rae said weakly, "you can not come. I know you want to help, but I can not put you in that kind of danger".

Scott crossed his arms. "You can't, I can. What if those Manticore people have some knock out stuff like we used for Alec that works on transgenics only". Alec looked thoughtful.

"It would be a good back up idea, sides," Alec said holding a hand up at Rae's dark expression, " we want to sneak in the building right? Well I got an idea there".

---

The last time that Jaye had been strapped down in a chair had been in 2009 straight after the escape of Zack's unit. Then he had been put through six months of torture with no reason but the fact he was Zack's clone.

This time it was solely because of himself, because he was the rogue, the traitor to Manticore.

Jaye supposed that they were making him wait to make him nervous, put him off balance thinking about what they would do to him. Instead since regaining consciousness he was dwelling on the fact that, if they were going to do something why didn't they go ahead.

As if to answer his wish or rather nightmare, Lydecker strode into the room. There was something about the commanding officer of Manticore that had always unsettled him. It had been why Jaye had always been glad that Lydecker was obsessed with Zack's unit rather than them. Still Lydecker had been around much more than Jaye would have liked.

It did not help to think of their last encounter, which had left his sisters dead, 215 had been sweet and quiet- an ever ready ear to listen to what was on your mind. 728 had been the opposite, outgoing and refused to listen to most others… it didn't matter anymore. They were dead and it was the Colonel's fault.

"I thought that you were a better soldier than what you demonstrated today. I was obviously wrong". Jaye gave a wry smile.

"Well I did learn from the best Deck". No more rank and proper respect would be accorded. Never again would he be that soldier again. Jaye was worried about Piper but had no intention of bringing it up.

Lydecker did not look annoyed at the display of insubordination but seemed to be paying closer attention to him now. Interested. " That's why you came here 600, for Rae's help, isn't it?"

Jaye feigned an expression of ignorance, "I have no idea what you are talking about. And it's Jaye, my name is JAYE- I can spell it if you like". A few months ago such a remark would have been unthinkable. It felt like a lifetime ago.

Now Lydecker resisted the urge to smile. A name, the clone of Zack had given himself a name. 600/Jaye were also demonstrating an independence that he had never seen the solider demonstrate before. The X5 had been a decent soldier and 2IC but nothing more than that. The few clones of the unit that had escaped, Lydecker had really not bothered with them. For the most part they were just copies, simple replicas. But Jaye seemed to be something more than just another clone, all that potential and he wasted it on trying to be something he was not, tried to live in a world he didn't belong in. None of his kids belonged out there.

"Jaye then", Lydecker noticed the discomfort that Jaye tried to hide at the use of his name. "The young woman you were with, she is a civilian and she knows Rae. I know you have been in contact with her".

Even though Rae had been in the outside world longer than he had been, Jaye felt he had to protect her from Lydecker. But hell, he felt the same desire to shield Alec from the Colonel as well.

" Cliché this, cliché that," Jaye said dryly rolling his eyes, a substitute to shaking his head which was too tightly restrained to do even that. It was one thing to crack jokes around your patients- if he got out of this he was going to try to be more understanding to the patients. "I'm not going to tell you, end of story". Lydecker leaned in closer.

"You are how I am going to get her back, she will come for you and I will be waiting".

---

The train zoomed along the tunnel and Scott was sitting opposite Rae who was just staring out the window. Alec was standing near the exit door. At this time and weather, there was hardly anyone else on the train and the only person apart from them was an old man half asleep in the next compartment.

The last few weeks had been a rush for Scott. His grandfather's death, finding out one of the people closest to him was a genetically enhanced supersolider and then all of a sudden being part of this like one of the stories he read. But it was real, and people were in real danger.

In a story, the characters seemed to get breaks once in a while and eventually the good guys won. Not in reality. Rae had tried to explain why Lydecker was putting all this pressure here, to draw Jaye, her and now Alec out. Unlike villains from make believe, Lydecker was not about to give anyone a chance to recover. He looked in surprise as a slight tremor went through Rae's body. "Are you okay?"

Rae nodded and dug into her jacket's pocket and pulled out a small plain tube and shook out four small pills. She took them quickly.

Alec looked at her and groaned as he went over to them.

"You are okay for this aren't you?"

"Of course I am" Rae said, with a hint of exasperation in her voice, the tremors stopped. "My seizures are always like this, then the tryptophan fixes them. I have learnt to live with them".

Alec frowned. "Have you ever considered returning, because from what happened, my bad and all- they seem to be more than just a minor glitch".

"I would be lying to say if they could fix them I would not be tempted" Rae said frankly, "But they can't and even if they could it would not ever be worth it". The seizures were a constant chain to Manticore, a way they hurt her even though they couldn't touch her.

"What made you escape that night? All Manticore ever told us were you were traitors who abandoned the mission, and I was more than willing to believe that, things gotta lot harder after you all bailed". For a moment Alec didn't think Rae was going to answer him. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and distant.

"Eva, was one reason. Seeing Lydecker shoot her in cold blood" A bitterness entered her voice and Rae's eyes were focused on a spot outside." Eva froze, she couldn't even end up pulling the trigger, and he still killed her for defiance more than anything else.

We did it save Max from being dissected alive by the scientists like Jack… to end everything that happened to us everyday, for a lot of reasons".

Alec smirked. 'And to think a lot of us were jealous because your unit was the Colonel's favorites". The train began to halt to a stop, bring the conversation to an end. Rae was glad, it never made her comfortable how special she and her brothers and sisters were to Lydecker. It scared her, if Rae was honest about it.

Rae, Alec and Scott stepped onto the platform. The ground was wet and a small stream of water seemed to be coming from up the stone stairs up to street level. The sound of the storm was loud, it was a constant roar and Alec turned to Scott.

"Ready?"

---

There was only one thing in TAC member Vince Terrazzo's mind that was worse then chasing a transgenic which often lead to getting knocked out and if you were very unlucky a snapped neck. Being stuck on sentry duty outside in the middle of a damned hurricane. He was under a small amount of undercover where the back door opened into a back street, but not very much.

His regular sentry partner had been sick so because Command couldn't get a replacement Vince was doing it alone. He swore as his cigarette went out for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Vince's hand flew to his sidearm when a man appeared from the street, soaked, his black shirt covered with a red substance. Blood.

"Help" The man, said stopping halfway toward Vince, his light brown eyes wide with fear at the sight of the gun. "My wife, she slipped and she's hurt real bad, you have to help me".

He ran up to meet the man. Vince went to ask where the man's wife was but a hard blow to the side of his head took all the thoughts out of his head and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Alec shook his head, water droplets running down his body further soaking his clothes.

"Pathetic".

Scott looked at his top; the red paint he used for his replica figurines had done its job. Rae strode up to them, her hair was partially plastered to her face, but strands were blowing in all directions and passed Scott his jacket, which he put on quickly.

She bent down and went through the man's pockets, pulling out a plastic card. Alec looked across the empty yard, at the small power generator and grinned.

The light outside went out for a moment and then came back on dimly. Without the primary source of power, secondary systems like the camera system would be now offline while the primary security systems Manticore had in place would remain online. Rae used the card on the slot near the door; it flashed green and a click sounded as the door opened.

A quick scan of the corridor revealed a man at a desk but apart from than that vacant. He looked up at the sound of the opened door and Rae ran, blurring and knocked him out with a blow from her elbow. The man went down, and she picked up his radio, undamaged unlike the radio of the man outside. Rae's shoes squelched from the moisture.

Alec came in and was followed by Scott. She looked back and glanced at them and then at the knocked out man. The weather also apart from helping had soaked their clothes and made it really hard to go in stealth mode. A change of clothes was in order.

---

"This is risky Deck" Renfro said with folded arms. She was sitting in the chair in the office, and Lydecker was sitting behind the desk. The dim lights made her dark brown eyes look black and the noise of the storm was loud even this deep inside the building. "We know they are in the building now, why not take them all".

"We run the risk of tipping 478 and 494, and then they will escape. You underestimate the kids".

Renfro stood then, all her patience out of the window.

"You sound so damned proud of them Deck," Renfro said, shaking her head. "Now how is them getting away and continuing to stay away a good thing?" The scorn in her voice was apparent. Lydecker gave her a look of patience and a slight look of pride, of purpose.

"From only being trained as children, they have shown again and again how much potential they have. Once they are back where they belong just imagine what they can accomplish". An argument the Committee had heard, and had kept Manticore alive after the escape in 2009. And with every year the Committee did not regret its decision. Renfro was interrupted from responding when a solider entered the room.

"Colonel Lydecker, we just got a signal from where the female civilian and 600 are being held, 494 is definitely rogue and there is another person with them. The signal was cut off before a description of this person could be sent".

Lydecker stood in one fluidic motion from behind the desk and started for the door. Before he left with the solider he looked at Renfro.

"McNeill, ensure that a team is sent to protect Director Renfro, we would not want anything to befall her". McNeill pulled out his radio and began to speak into it as they left. Renfro watched thoughtfully as the door closed and the only sound was of the ever-worsening storm.

The bond between Donald Lydecker and the unit once commanded by X5 599 was stronger than most. Even if the rogue transgenics fought it the fact that 599 and 452 had not killed Lydecker immediately as their training would dictate was an example. 789's attack of Lydecker in the Nevada desert had been emotional, her reindoctrination long and hard- her feelings of betrayal from Lydecker impeding the process. 789 had been the only one to try to kill Lydecker out of the twelve that had escaped, and more out of rage than premeditation.

581, the youngest of the unit had escaped, had been turned quickly by Psy Ops after capture, a testament to his youth that he was willing to let go so quickly, to trust Lydecker without doubts again. It was why the standing mandate were that between catching one of the younger ones or the older it was the younger ones that were a priority.

Lydecker had only hurt the transgenics from the runaway unit when it was absolutely necessary; a weakness Renfro did not have and thought Lydecker was a fool to have.

The only dead X5 from the 2009 escape had been Seth/245, a mystery thirteenth Manticore had believed to be dead. And now was. The X5 had been injured and had from reports let himself fall off the Space Needle in Seattle.

Any capture of the X5s had been by Lydecker's hand or involvement; the only one the Committee believed could track them down. And the recapture of 600 by Lydecker today would only further his standing.

Renfro suddenly smiled unseen by anyone else.

---

Hitting her hand on the wall, Rae said a few of the forbidden words that she had not picked up from the guards as a child at Manticore. Her changed outfit was from one of the guards, slightly too big but the least of her problems. Scott was looking apprehensively down the hall as if expecting to be attacked from behind any second.

"Calm down and breath" Alec said, lightly. "This is not a huge problem". Rae shot him a look and turned to the scanner. The panel beside it had been unscrewed and several wires were now intersecting the others.

It was not making any difference.

"We can't go save them if we can not get past this point, and it requires a retina scan of someone with level three or higher" and she sighed. "And there does not seem to be a way around it".

"Just keep trying" Alec said darkly, looking down the hallway expecting to hear footsteps any moment. Rae looked at the device again. Maybe if she tried changing the direction of the two copper wires towards the outside- the steel enforced door slid open just before she touched wires.

"You scared me for a moment" Scott said glancing at the now open door in obvious relief.

"I didn't do that".

---

At the desk Renfro sat at the computer smiling. There was more than one way to get what she wanted.

---

"Who cares, let's go" Alec said and Rae nodded. As the trio passed the door Rae looked at the other side of the handle and smashed the locking mechanism. Not taking any chances. "Duck!" Alec yelled at Scott as four armed special ops men came around a corner and the doctor obliged.

Alec ran to them, dodging the bullets and ran on the side of the wall for a second and hit two of them down at once. He incapacitated the other soldiers just as quickly. "Rae, do whatever you are going to do now, I'll stand look out ".

Rae beckoned to Scott and they went down a short narrow passage with five cells. The cells were more designed for ordinary people than transgenics and Rae really did not wish to know what Manticore used them for normally.

She glanced in the cells they passed, the majority of them were empty but the fourth one along Rae kicked the lock hard breaking it. Scott passed her and entered.

Piper looked up as Scott came in. "'Bout time Skywalker". The quip was more habit than actual teasing. She hugged him tightly winding him and then let go when he started to complain.

"We have to get out of here so save it" Rae looked quickly in and Piper looked at her for signs of the killer that Lydecker spoke of. There was rigidness in her features and a certain discipline but there was something else. Fear, just as strong as hers just well hidden. Rae regarded Piper strangely. "Come on!"

Piper left the cell just before Scott did and then held her friend just as tightly as she had Scott. Rae swallowed tightly, as part of this caught up with her. She had almost lost the people closest to her and the thought was unbearable. She pulled away. "Come on, we have to go save Jaye".

The cell passageway gave way to a laboratory with a chair set up in the middle with Jaye tied down on it. It was some twisted version of a dentist's chair and a look of revulsion on Rae's face told Scott that it was something really bad.

Piper shivered slightly, she hated dentists.

A scientist looked up as they entered and Rae grabbed a metal tray which instruments fell off loudly. The transgenic hit the tray into the scientist's face and he seemed to bounce off it and fell to the ground. Piper ran forward to check the scientist as Rae dropped the tray and went to the chair. The man was still breathing, but his nose was in rough shape and was clearly broken. "He's okay, just a broken nose" Piper said looking up at Scott.

Rae pulled out the plastic gag from Jaye's mouth as she heard Piper speak.

"He is lucky that is all I gave him".

Jaye worked his jaw and Rae began to undo the restraints. "Rae, it's a trap".

She raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, so we have it covered". A noise came from a door at the other side of the room as someone unlocked it and Rae's eyes widened. From the sound of it an entire Calvary was behind door number two. She abandoned what she was doing and grabbed a metal chair, sticking it under the handle, then leaning her weight on the door." Piper, get Jaye out of there".

Piper got up from the scientist and began to quickly undo the restraints and fast as she could.

"No taking any chances, huh?" Piper asked rhetorically after she got his arms undone. Jaye began to undo the other restraints he could now reach and she did his legs.

"He's out!" yelled Piper, as Jaye got off the chair and Rae smiled. A hissing sounded under the door, and Rae's eyes drooped slightly. She pushed herself away from the door and looked at the others.

"Some form of gas, come on!"

Alec looked up as Rae closed the door on the lab loudly as Scott, Jaye and Piper joined him. "And Manticore underestimates you guys", he said shaking his head.

"We need to split up" Jaye spoke as he looked back at the door. " We are too easy to track right now". Rae shook her head violently.

"That's what Lydecker wants, to split us up into manageable numbers. We stick together and we may all get out of here, we don't and we might as well save ourselves a lot of running now"

Jaye nodded reluctantly and Rae pulled a radio off one of the fallen men that Alec had knocked out, passing it to Piper.

"Go throughout the frequencies, its similar to the ones at work for emergencies- and find out what channel Lydecker is using". They began to walk fast, and they passed the door that.

'What if Lydecker thought of that?" Alec said sarcastically. "He's not that stupid" Rae smiled slightly and walked ahead slightly and looked around a corner. All clear.

"I don't want to listen to his false movements, I want to talk to him".

---

Lydecker clipped his radio back to his belt and walked over to where one of the soldiers, the TAC commander was pouring over a map. The solider saluted him.

"What is our plan of attack sir?"

"We should ambush them here-" He was cut of as his radio buzzed with static and he pulled out the radio.

"_Do you think you could at least make your traps less hidden, because I am kind of bored already"_

The voice was female, but not the civilian's. It was precise and with none of the characteristic wit he had heard from Max. He just knew it was Rae's, the way she spoke was a remnant from how the kids had been trained to speak at Manticore was laced through her voice.

"Rae, I presume?'

"_You have gone to a lot of trouble to catch me. It is almost a shame to have to say good bye so quickly"_

Lydecker almost smiled. They both knew that it was not the case here, her tone unchanged. "You will not get out of here. Now would be a tactically mature time to surrender".

" _Lydecker, I would have to be mentally unstable and no longer in possession of my faculties to even consider that request. And even then I doubt it"._

"Do you really think, even if you do, get out of here tonight that you will be able to stay away from Manticore forever. It's who you are".

There was a slight pause before there was a response._" I am not the little girl who would follow your every order without even hesitating anymore. And if I have to run for the rest of my life to stay free of that place and you I will"._

"What about the people you care about who are right now next to you planning the next move?" Lydecker spoke quietly. "Do you want them to get taken as well?"

"_Don't you even think about it. You are not getting anyone tonight, and I am definitely not going to be your hat trick"._

"What if I let them walk out of this building, I won't pursue them" Lydecker gave a pause. "If you hand yourself in".

---

Jaye shook his head as Rae looked at the radio in her hand. "No way, don't even think about it, he will never let us go and you know it".

Piper gave a nod. "And even if he would let us", she continued quickly as Jaye began to glare at her. "I could never live with knowing the price my freedom came at". Scott nodded in agreement.

Looking at them, Rae crossed her arms. "Then how do you think I felt when Lydecker got his hand on you and Jaye. This won't be the last time he tries something like this and I am not going to exchange your lives or anyone else's for my own freedom". Alec took the radio from Rae's hand and simply smashed it against the wall.

"Discussion all over" Alec said happily. "Damn those things are more delicate than glass".

"Then let's get out of here" said Scott, "Because no one is going to let you pull a Spock off the Wrath of Kahn". Piper just looked at him.

"You are so pathetic".

Rae shook her head, she just gave up. "Shut up and stay here, you can just stick to fighting at home about celery shoes, Alec, Jaye we have the guards who think we are heading in another direction to take out. I am sure Lydecker is thinking that I will do what he wants".

Jaye hid his look of victory at what Rae was implying.

---

Rae approached the guards with her hands up.

The guards looked up in obvious shock, the unit had been posted there near the east exit to ensure the intruders could not just leave.

"I surrender" Rae spoke as though defeated. "You can tell Lydecker to let my friends go"

_---_

"_Sir, unit 5 reporting in, we have X5 478 here, who has just surrendered to us"._

Lydecker picked up his radio. "Acknowledged, we will head too your position now".

"_Yes, Colonel, over and out"_

He turned to the men.

"Reinforce the protection on the other exits, I want to make sure nobody leaves- you and you come with me".

---

"Lay down on the floor 478".

Rae slowly got to her knees and looked up at the solider. From the other side of the unit, Jaye and Alec were emerging from the vents.

The slight noises were being blocked by the storm.

"I think you should join me". The solider that gave the order looked confused for a second, and Rae swung her legs under the man and he fell to the ground. The soldiers aimed their tazers at her and Jaye and Alec hit them from behind.

Rae picked up a tazer and shot it at the nearest person and the solider fell to the ground convulsing. "See how you like it!"

Jaye punched a solider in the head and swung his arm around back to hit another one behind him that had his gun aimed at Alec's head. Alec gave a grunt and kicked one of the soldiers into two other ones and they fell to the ground. Then Rae spun her legs and hit several men in mid air and then kicked behind her catching a solider in a place that made Alec and Jaye wince. Ouch.

Piper bit her nails and leaned against the hallway corner. Scott was standing opposite her when Rae came round the corner ahead. "Hey, let's go" Piper stood up properly and turned without glancing down the hallway where Lydecker and his two soldiers were coming down.

Lydecker raised his gun and Scott looked at the scene with horror. "Piper!" Rae stared surprised, and Piper turned her head to see the raised gun and froze in her tracks.

The gun fired. Scott fell on top of Piper sending them both to the ground. Rae ran over in horror. Lydecker vanished from sight with his men.

Rae pulled Scott off Piper. Piper was winded and lay there in shock, while Scott had a red patch on the upper side of his torso.

"Hey" Rae said as his light brown eyes closed. "Come on, please!" She fought panic as she laid him on his back. There was blood on the edge of his mouth and Scott coughed up more blood, then stopped moving. Rae breathed rapidly, and felt his pulse. Nothing, no pulse he was gone.

Piper looked over and began to cry. "You idiot, why did you save me?"

'Who tried to kill you" Rae asked, her voice unsteady. Piper sat up and crawled over, putting a hand on Scott's face.

"Lydecker". Rae stood and looked down the hallway, taking off, blurring as she disappeared.

"Rae!" Alec and Jaye came over. Alec looked uncharactericly serious and Jaye looked as if he was about to go into shock. That had been how 728 had looked after she had-

"Where did she go". Piper looked up at Alec.

"After Lydecker".

---

His soldiers flew into the wall and Lydecker turned aiming his gun. It was ripped out if his hands and an arm reached out and held him to the wall.

"Ironic".

The voice from the radio, Lydecker looked at Rae. There was a look in her eyes that reminded him of how they had all looked at him after he had been forced to kill Eva for her defiance. The look of pain and hatred that seemed to be of those two emotions fighting for dominance.

Rae's angular features, no longer very child like were hardened. She released him suddenly and he fell to the ground. Lydecker looked up to see his gun pointed at his head. Her hands were shaking slightly, but her grip was tight.

"Look familiar?" she asked. "This is how I remember watching my sister die, looking up and seeing you come into the light and now it is your turn for Eva and Scott".

Rae's hands shook harder as she willed herself to pull the trigger. Lydecker looked at her yes, the hesitation. An inability to pull that trigger.

"You can not kill me because no matter how much you pretend, you are a soldier and your loyalty runs to Manticore-" A backhanded hit stopped him from speaking for a moment.

Alec put his hands on Rae's and took the gun off her. "No" he said looking at Lydecker. "She just can't kill you because she is better than that- you failed".

He took out the cartridge and threw the gun pieces on the floor.

---

"I can't go in there, with you to, to the morgue…" Rae said quietly, the first words she had said for an hour. When Alec and Rae had reemerged from there, Jaye had carried Scott's body out of there.

They had stolen a car and driven it to the hospital, to deliver Scott's body. Piper was already in there with Alec filling out paperwork, writing that a gang shot had taken Scott Winter's life. Nothing about his sacrifice, his real killer.

"It's okay" Jaye said, and Rae just shook her head. The light rain after the storm was the only water on her face. Unable to cry.

"It's not okay, and it's not going to be ever again". She climbed off the step she was sitting on and walked into the hospital.

The lights in there seemed too bright, it just seemed surreal. Over by the main area was where they had first met, and the first time Piper had called Scott a geek for his Farscape T-shirt.

A nurse was in the room with Chris Ogilvy when she entered both the nurse and the cancer patient looking up.

"Dr Larter" the nurse said gently. In a hospital, news traveled like wildfire, true or not. "I am so sorry, I was just telling-"

"Can you leave the patient and I alone for a second". The nurse nodded looking solemn and walked out quickly. Rae closed the door, not noticing the slightly funny look the nurse had given her stolen outfit.

"You are so selfish" Rae said, looking Chris in the eyes. Chris looked shocked but she did not give him a chance to answer, drawing up a chair and sitting down.

"You think it's hard being the one whose dying? Sure you will die, slowly fading away everyday- compared to you Scott got off easy". Her words seemed foreign to her, Rae felt as if she was not in control at all. Chris looked slightly guiltily, he had been Scott's patient for a while.

"How about the people you leave behind". Chris looked up.

"What do you mean?"

"Your family, everyone who loves you has to watch you die, has to live afterwards. It's those left behind that feel the real pain because they don't just turn off, they keep on living, dying everyday". Rae stood sharply.

"Nurse Madlee?" The nurse stepped into the room, pretending she had not overheard the conversation. "I am declaring Christopher Ogilvy mentally unable thus can not make decisions regarding his own life. Begin the treatments his family wanted". Chris spluttered incoherently.

"She can't do that!" Madlee watched Rae depart.

'Yes, she can".

_I am not doing it for that patient. He deserves what he seems to want so badly, death. But his family don't deserve to go through that._

_Right now it hurts so badly, I can't see straight. I wish Lydecker was dead, wish that Scott was not, wish I had the strength to kill Lydecker._

_But I am not like him. But right now I could not care. I do not want this to hurt so badly, if this is the price of being human… it is not worth it._

T.B.C

Oh yes, I know okay I had trouble writing that. I so wanted to not do it. But no matter how many alternate endings I wrote…

I feel so horrible for writing that btw.

Anyway faces;

Jonathan Togo/Vince Terrazzo, Tim Russ/TAC Commander and Fakme Janssen/ Nurse Madlee. Just remember all those faceless poor soldier idiots.

This was not finished yesterday, because of 9/11.

Chapter Completed 12/9/2006 or 9/12/2006


	5. Other Places

A.N- Five chapters and yet again with the 'I don't own Dark Angel' bit. Just a reference to a few chapters back in Chapter Three revision; Eric Bana /Michael Vercetti. Again with the ' use my story and characters' without permission and I'll kill you. On a random note FOX is evil, I tell you evil.

Edit: This is the final chapter. There was a chapter six but it was bad, and time passed and I realized this. I also realized that this story was really done here. So I edited this chapter, making it an ending so that while sad- it ends on a hopeful note and a happy one.

In the Seattle/Dark Angel version the dream Max had in AJBAC was what happened.

Chapter Five- Other Places

_Black has never been a colour I would choose to wear all black, all the time, because it seems to be death's uniform. It's what the black Manticore ops wear, so it's no wonder I feel that way. _

_This feels worse than before, an eight and a half year old really can not understand what death means-no matter how enhanced they are. And I understand now, with Eva I thought she could get up again like a jack in the box. I didn't think she could be really dead, but with… him there is a horrible finality to it- and I just can't cry._

Piper tugged at her black plain blouse hard. It was stuck between two of the crates, and it would be too much effort to unpack every thing in this jumbled stack of her stuff in the corner in her room next to the door.

With one hand Piper wiped away the tears that gathered at her eyes again. She was going to get that top if it was the last thing- it slipped free and the two crates fell over and the entire pile collapsed. Piper looked at the increased mess and then the blouse in her hand. A weird urge to laugh bubbled up with in her and she giggled. The door opened and Rae came in looking around in concern.

"Is everything all right in here?" There was a hollow edge to her voice, her green eyes were flat and her hair was unkempt. Piper laughed shrilly, and she looked up at Rae.

"It's all sunshine and glitter, it's… great… it's fine, oh god". Then she burst into tears , Rae leaned down and held her tightly. The loss was so painful then, Rae wanted to cry with Piper so badly, but no tears came.

So she just stayed there and looked up. A picture frame of one of Piper's experimentation period with glass and sticks was hanging there.

The photo was at least four years old, and Rae found herself looking at her younger self, fifteen with a badly painted bright pink butterfly painted on her face. Piper in the photo was sitting with an evil grin and a paintbrush in her hand. Scott had his arms over the pair of them and there was a pink streak of paint on his nose.

For the first time in her life, Rae wished that she had never escaped Manticore.

---

Dr William Larson had never thought he would be going to the funeral of one of his young, healthy residents. Treating them yes, with Larter and Cameron's insane bike races, or Winter's finally getting bashed up for his stupid obsession with science fiction.

But Will Larson never had thought it would come to this. Some punk takes a wrong shot aiming at another loser and it takes out someone with everything to live for.

He could not forget the look on Cameron's face, the devastation while the medical examiner had told them exactly how the bullet had made one of his lungs fill up with blood and how it had puncture his heart on the way through.

Seeing someone close to you die as a doctor it felt worse-like you had failed them and although Larson would never admit it Winter, Larter, Cameron meant a lot to him. Hell even that intern that had bonded with them Krieghen, was okay.

But this was why he didn't get close to people, Will knew a truth that a lot of other people denied. Eventually, despite friendship, family everybody left you.

You could scream and fight as much as you were able but you could not change this. And that was why life just sucked.

---

"When we get up there" Jaye said warningly to Alec. "There isn't going to be any of your usual smart mouthed wit". Alec gave him a look as if to ask did Jaye think he was completely without feelings.

"I get it okay?" There was a note of aggravation in his voice. Jaye looked him.

"Are you alright?"

Alec busied him self with a spot on the car dashboard. Jaye had gotten a new car last night, somehow it seemed to be as run down as the last one. "It's my fault isn't it, I m the one who tried to sell you guys out to Lydecker".

"Yes but the Colonel recognized me, if I hadn't followed you, you two would have returned without any problem and Scott wouldn't be dead"

"Then its everybody's fault". The quip let out the tension, Jaye was feeling. Sure Scott and him had not been close but they had become friends. Just another life destroyed by Lydecker and he was probably gloating about it.

---

_There are no funerals in Manticore. They just put you in a cheap wooden box and lower you into the ground, putting a plaque with your barcode._

It all felt wrong, the plain black dress she wore, the black, all the black everywhere it just made Rae feel wrong. The day too bright, the sun too shiny, the sky too blue, the grass was the wrong green and just everything was off.

_A crow's call, and a brother falls to the ground. _Rae looked up at a tombstone in a nearby row at the statue of a crow. That stupid crow. Piper was sobbing into her shoulder and she was impassive.

Rae could not feel a thing, no laughter, no sadness, nothing. It was like she was an empty doll.

_Lin_

_Teris_

_Jack_

_Eva_

_Scott_

How many people had been lost? Too many.

---

"Colonel Lydecker? The helicopter will be ready in fifteen to take you back to Manticore". Lydecker nodded as the aide left the room and returned the man to his thoughts.

Last week had been just a complete failure, and in front of Elizabeth Renfro no less. He could still remember the pain, the grief in her eyes and the absolute hatred that Rae had held for him. It had hurt to see one of his kids in that much distress but Lydecker knew that what he had tried to do was for her own good.

If he had more time he would tear Miami apart and find her but Zack was waiting for him at Manticore. And he knew where the others were. Once he had succeeded in retrieving the others he would come back to here to finish the job.

Still, it impressed him how the former strategist's had turned disadvantages into advantages, tricking his men, he still could not understand how she had entered the sealed door to the infirmary and the cells.

From all evidence it made no sense, and there was no sign of an electrical failure which left only one explanation. Someone had let her enter, which meant someone here had helped the rogue.

But who would have the incentive not to mention the absence of rationality to help the girl?

Lydecker's cold ice blue eyes narrowed and he strode out of the office. He could never prove it but he knew this much for certain.

He would have to keep a close eyes on Renfro.

_---_

_I am at a wake, the wake of my best friend and I feel nothing. Am I just a inhuman soldier that can't feel anything? Is Lydecker, Manticore right and no matter how hard I try or want to be human I can never be?_

_I am a danger to everyone around me, if I had not been there Scott would still be alive. May be I should just-_

Someone stumbled and their hand slipped spilling some drink on the front of her dress, returning her focus.

Scott's oldest cousin, Carson muttered an apology and she heard herself tell him it was okay. Absentmindedly, she walked to the bathrooms, and someone stepped out. Rae entered finding herself alone.

For a second, the mirror seemed to trick her, show an ordinary girl with a drink spilt on her dress.

But she was not ordinary, by any leap of the imagination. Rae looked at the mirror suddenly hating it, her face seemed sculptured, made like a doll's, as did her body.

She was made, not a person just an assemblage of animal and human DNA. Some scientist had spliced her and cooked her up, a complete freak of nature whose only strength seemed to be to destroy everything she touched.

A doctor, and Rae looked at her hands as a slight seizure went through them and passed.

Who was she fooling, a killer can not save lives- they took them. Rae would loseeveryone else as time went on and it would be her fault.

She took her cellphone out of her black shoulder bag and looked at it. It was a scrambled cell, untraceable. 3-0-4-2-7-1-9-4-4-0-6-8-2-9-4. That was Lydecker's number, Alec had given it to her when they had still been holding him prisoner, before he had switched sides.

He, and Rae doubted believing this, thought if she ever came to her senses and smartened up, that was the number to call. When he had spat it out, Rae had tried to put her fingers in her ears. It hadn't worked.

Tracing the surface of the number pad, Rae's breathing became shallow. Unconsciously she pressed in the numbers and held the phone to her ear.

"Lydecker".

Rae felt her mouth go dry and swallowed. "Do you always sound so normal after killing somebody or is it just me?"

There was a long pause and Rae struggled to keep her breathing normal.

"His death was a complication, one that you could have avoided" Rae didn't answer, and closed her eyes slightly.

"Rae" Lydecker's voice seemed to have a trace of curiosity in it now. "Why did you risk exposure by contacting me?"

Rae answered his question with a question "I do not know, why do I feel this hollow?"

"Hollow?"

"You know, devoid of all emotions and can not feel a thing. Kind of like an android now that I think about it".

"We will go easy on you if you turn yourself into Manticore" Lydecker seemed to sound almost calming. "It would not be that hard, all you have to do is let go"

"I'll meet you at what used to be the main police station before the pulse at midnight then".

There was an even longer pause now, as if Lydecker was not sure of what he had heard.

"I am serious" Rae disconnected and looked at herself in the mirror. This was for the best.

Lydecker put the phone away from his ear and looked at the solider telling him they were ready to go.

"We are not going anywhere, and in eight hours, X5 478 will be in our custody". Lydecker returned to the building and the soldier gaped at him.

_---_

Rae lay on the sofa, her breathing was steady. Had she made the right call? It didn't matter now.

_---_

The feeling of hardness underneath was the first thing that Rae felt as she woke up. She blinked hazily and then her eyes snapped open.

Rae sat up slightly, grimacing as she wiped the gravel off that was stuck in the side of her face. Where was she? Not in her apartment that was for sure. Some very pathetic joke that Alec had pulled off in some attempt to cheer her up. Cheer him up more likely.

Rae looked around in confusion, she seemed to be in the very heart of the Vercetti gang syndicate. But it was deserted completely, the buildings looking empty and abandoned. This made no sense. She stood.

"Hello, anybody, anyone here?" The silence answered her, and her voice seemed to echo. This was starting to weird her out, this was just beyond normal in any sense of the word. She began to walk down the street and looked around, a newspaper stuck in a doorway fluttering in the wind. Rae picked it up._ 21__st__ of January 2025.__** Miami Declared Government Land: People forced to Vacate.**_ Rae rubbed her eyes and looked at the date again, this was insane!

She began to run around the street.

Rae walked up to her apartment building and stared in shock. It was a blackened out husk and only the first floor remained.

A noise made her turn and a solider ran at her from his jeep with a gun and she blurred throwing him backwards.

He was out like a light and Rae stared at the vehicle. She was still not convinced that Lydecker hadn't caught her and was now laughing at her drug induced delusion. None of this seemed to make any logical sense at all and she got into the truck, starting it.

_16__TH__ of August, 2025_

Seattle, Former Fogle Towers Apartment Building, New Manticore

Time barely seemed to have touched Donald Lydecker, although there was nothing to make him age prematurely. Only two of his kids were still out there, Zack and Rae and the latter was presumed dead after the accident in Miami. She had never turned up for that meeting and, it seemed she was dead.

The very choice of location came from where they stood. He had been too late to save Max from herself, she and her cyber journalist lover had killed themselves rather than face reality. The other captures had been much more effective, combining tactics with X5s he had already caught. Manticore's office was based here, at the very spot as a testament to all the transgenics- no matter how far you got or how far you ran, you would never really leave.

Renfro had been taken out years ago, killed by Zack, ironically giving him the power base he needed to affect the changes he knew would bring the kids in.

"Director Lydecker?" Sandoval came in, completely bald. " Series X 10 have the main trials for the specials ops unit tomorrow and we have a report from Florida, Miami- a photo actually that doesn't make much sense". He passed the file to his superior.

Lydecker looked at the photo. Outside an abandoned building was a full colour photograph of Rae, dated at the bottom as yesterday. But the girl in the photo looked as if she was still nineteen, she should be twenty-four and at least look twenty-one like the others. He gave the photo more inspection, there was a graze on her forehead and the young transgenics clothes didn't look in that fine a state.

"Regardless, we now know she is alive so we will find her".

Sandoval nodded. "Very good sir" He left leaving Lydecker to his thoughts and he reached for the phone and picked it up punching the second button on the top.

"This is Lydecker, deploy X5 734 and 210 to sweep Seattle".

Rae had been to Seattle from what seemed like two years ago for a teaching medical conference. But according to everyone else, it was eight. The tired look on her face as she exited the train showed quite clearly. She had ditched the truck at Los Angeles, taking a train the rest of the way.

It was if nothing she remembered existed anymore. A large bulky jacket covered her shape and the dirt on her body looked out of place her in a world that seemed to have recovered from the pulse.

Kids ran into the train past her in uniforms and out. This reminded her of just after the escape. The way America had been before.

She broke off her contemplations when a hand stirred her into a corner and Rae looked up. "Jaye?" The man had a scar across his face, marring what had once been great features. He shook his head.

"Have you lost it Rae or had ops sec left your mind completely?" It was Zack. Rae didn't care at that moment and hugged him tightly. " People are staring sister, stop it, what wrong with you" Zack said pushing her away and looking around intently.

"You are not going to believe me". Zack just looked at her.

"Try me".

"Okay, let me get this straight" Zack said in a tone that clearly showed he thought that Rae was not in right state of mind. "Yesterday it was six years ago and now you are in the 'future'". Rae resisted the urge to scream in frustration.

"I know it sounds crazy, well impossible" Rae said crossing her arms. "But it may be that some organization took me and I have just been in some sort of stasis, but believe me when I say I am out of my depth".

Rae sat on a bench and Zack leaned against a metal post, trying to look normal as a hoverdrone flew past.

Zack spoke after a minute. "That makes more sense, okay Lydecker has killed or caught everyone but us a long time ago".

"Everyone?"

"Everyone, look Rae it is great you are still free, we can go to Canada, and then somewhere far away where Lydecker will not find us". Rae looked confused for a moment.

"Then why are you not very, very, very far away? "Rae asked quietly and Zack looked away. "You were going to attack Lydecker and hope you both died". Her older brother was unapologetic here. Rae could not speak; she was considering turning herself over to Lydecker. Unsure now, but still…

"So what? I failed all of you, nothing matters or did, but I can still save you".

Rae slapped him across the face hard and then spoke, her voice lowered. " What about the others, we are just going to let _them _do this?" The words seemed those of an idealist, not her own anymore.

"Get it together Rae, the others are them now" Zack looked away, a muscle in his jaw working. Then he froze. "Sister, get up, slowly". Rae stood slowly and followed his line of direction. Brin and Jondy got out of a humvee and men poured out, scouring the surroundings.

Then Jondy's gray blue eyes narrowed at them. "Go, Rae, I'll hold them off".

"I am not leaving you". Zack glared at her.

"You have to". Rae began to walk away, and looked back as Zack drew the attention of the Manticore soldiers and they zeroed in on him. All except for Jondy who was heading straight for her.

She watched in horror as the TACs surrounded Zack and he looked across the road at her. _Run _he mouthed, and Jondy came into full view, her expression hardened.

Rae leaped up to the apartment metal fire escape, and smashed through a window. An old lady stared at her in shock.

"I'm sorry" Rae said quickly as she undid the door and Jondy's face appeared at the broken window. She sprinted down the apartment hallway, blurring as she ran and came face to face with Brin.

"Brin" Rae said taking a step back in horror. It was like one of her nightmares, only this time it was real. Brin was the loyal Manticore solider, a mere automatin. What Rae was considering surrendering herself to become... Her older sister threw up a leg to hit Rae's side and she blocked it.

"You might as well give up 478, 599 is already in Manticore custody". Rae shook her head and threw herself down the stairs. Her hands caught on a step and she somersaulted to the landing and continued running down the stairs.

Pulling the door open, Rae found a fully armed TAC team and every one of their tazers were aimed at her. She swallowed hard and threw herself out of the door, leaping to try to go over them

Almost instantly they fired the tazers at her and stars went off behind her eyes and she fell.

---

The feeling of cold metal restraints was the first thing Rae felt when she woke. Restraints seemed to pinning down her entire body and fear filled her at that moment. There was a plastic gag in her mouth, harshly placed to stop her from speaking.

Fighting panic, Rae tried to rip her left arm up to break the restraints. It didn't budge a single inch.

The sound of a door opening from the far side came to her and two pairs of footsteps sounded. Rae tried to turn her head but that seemed to be restrained as well.

A scientist took the gag out of her mouth and Lydecker leaned over her.

"Welcome home Rae".

The young woman glared at him, her thoughts racing. _This can't be it, after everything. I don't want this, I do, what do I want?_

"I will not go back to what I was before". Lydecker's eyes were practically ice and what small heat was in this room left and a complete fear set in. His moth opened…

Lydecker froze and so did everything else. Rae looked in shock as everything went blank and then she was unrestrained in the centre of the Miami hospital, right near the patients lounge. It was completely empty.

"Rae". She turned around at the sound of the famillar voice and Scott stood there as if ready to get to work. Rae held him then tightly and felt weird as he pulled away.

"I have to go". Rae shook her head violently.

"No, you have to stay". Scott looked out into the lounge.

_A young teenager with dark brown curls piled on her head spilt a can of soda over the girl next to her. A young intern stood next to them and laughed, causing both girls to glare at him._

"You are leaving".

At this Scott smiled at her and there was tears in his eyes. "I wish I could stay, believe me if I could stay I would. But that's not the way it works". Swallowing hard, Rae reached out and touched his face.

"I am so sorry". Scott shook his head.

"It isn't your fault, no one made him kill me".

Rae found her hands shaking and for the second time in her life it was not because of her seizures. "I should let him take me tonight, I am a danger to everyone around me". Scott rolled his eyes.

"For crying out loud" Scott started his usual sci fi tone from Stargate. " You can't believe that for a second. You are the reason the bastard can't find Jaye let alone yourself. I have never met someone with more of a drive to protect the ones she loves. Did you want it to be Piper here instead?"

"I wanted it to be no one".

"In a perfect world it would be, you have to get on with your life. You have to let me go"

The young transgenic looked up. "Is this the future, is this inevitable". Scott held her and whispered.

"_Only if you let it be"._

"Rachel!"

Rae woke up groggily and kept her eyes closed for a moment. "Scott?" She was pushed off the lounge and she opened her eyes. Rae made no effort to get up off the floor.

Piper was looking slightly apologetic and her usual humor was absent. There was no sign of Scott. Rae burst into tears, not delicate little sobs but ones that took her breath away. Piper slid down on the floor next to her and held her hand.

"Let it out". Rae had held back the pain so long that it physically hurt to cry and it felt as if she was watching Scott die all over again.

It seemed like too much but now the floodgates were open Rae could not stop it and it was not so much the tears but that physical pain that seemed to come with them.

"Promise me, promise me you are not going to leave me too". A tear fell down Piper's face.

"I promise".

As Rae pulled off the helmet, she looked up at the stars, there was no tracks where the tears had fell but slightly red eyes. Piper pulled her bike up next to Rae's and looked around in confusion.

"Why are we at the graveyard?"

"I have to show you something".

The two survivors walked silently, the small crescent of the fading moon shone brightly. Markers lay in a disorganized fashion and Rae maneuvered past them to the one she seeked, the one she had been at this morning.

"Why are we here?" Piper asked, knelling down and touching Scott's grave lightly and smiling at what the people had engraved, 'to the final frontier and beyond'.

Crossing her arms, Rae leaned on a near by gravestone. "Because, I want to tell you about something I believe in, that, how I know… he is okay and I wanted to tell you both". Piper came over and put an arm around Rae's shoulder and looked at the direction Rae was- the stars.

"There is a beautiful, angel, spirit, whatever you will and she is called the Blue lady and she watches over us from the good place".

Piper blinked back tears. "The good place?"

"Where good soldiers go. Where no one gets yelled at, there is no drills, no one disappears… no one gets shot…" Rae broke off for a moment her voice full of raw emotion.

"Scott's there" Piper said tightening her grip on Rae. "And in the good place parents don't die and children don't get hurt" she smiled at the stars. "Look after my geek okay Blue Lady?" Rae looked at her, her eyes shining from the tears.

"I thought you were an atheist".

"Scott just can't end like that".

When Rae spoke it was so quietly that Piper could barely here it. " No, he can not". She turned to Piper. "I have to go do something".

Piper nodded and then grabbed Rae's shoulder. "You know what you made me promise, the same goes for you too".

---

Rae stood on a high office building, and looked across two streets, using her vision to see Lydecker and his men milling around.

There was still a small part of her that felt she had to go down there, to protect the people she cared about. But Piper, Jaye and Alec needed her.

And Scott's death was not her fault. Lydecker had been the one to pull that trigger, not her. If she had not had that dream, or whatever it had been, she would be down there, handing herself in.

Rae tilted her head up strong and pulled out her cell, smiling. _Never again._

"I am sorry Lydecker, ".

From all the way over there, the little figure standing away from all the rest which Rae assumed was Lydecker turned around and she closed the cell. The young woman walked away.

_I got this close to throwing everything away. Scott, thank you. I am not alright, okay or even slightly better. Actually I may feel slightly worse here._

_But that does not matter somehow._

_I have to keep on living, and doing the best I can to make up for the lives you can't save._

_And Brin? Please hold on big sister, because one of these days I am going to walk into Manticore, head held high and rescue you._

_Just wait and see._

_Things may get messed up sometimes- but this is my life. I'm not 478 anymore. I never was. That's what Manticore does- they make you nothing, make you believe it. Sometimes they screw with me out here. But that's okay- because in the end people cared about me. I don't take lives, I save them. Because in end I decided who 'me' was going to be._

**The End**

Anyway extra cast,

Miguel Sandoval/Agent Sandoval, Nicole Bilderback/Brin, Ashley Scott/Jondy, George Eads/ Carson, Scientist/ Peter William, Aide/ Tom Wansey

Chapter completed 23/9/2006 or 9/23/2006 for Americans.

Chapter revision/Added Ending completed 1/2/2009 or 2/1/2009, year of the Pulse.


End file.
